'Byrom is used to me,' said Dane significantly.
'Proof positive of my two propositions,' said Hazel with a laugh.'Waiting on me, is bewildering work to a new hand.'
'If I give it him in charge, he will do it well. Byrom has a head.'
'But I do not want to be given in charge. Have not I a head too?'
Rollo laughed at her, and remarked that it was 'one he was bound to take care of.'
'So am I, I should hope,' said Hazel. 'What do you suppose I shall do with itor with myself generallythat you call out a special detail of police?'
'Did Mr. Falkirk let you go about by yourself?'
'Always! At least, so far as he was concerned,' said Hazel correcting herself.
'I warned you what you were to expect,' said Rollo lightly. But then they came to the breakfast table, and something else was talked of. When the meal was over, and he was about going, bending down by her chair, he asked,
'What time will you have the carriage?'
'No time,' said Hazel. 'I have decided to walk.'
'I want you to take a carriage and let Byrom attend youthe sidewalks are in a state of glare ice this morning.'
'I am sure-footed.'
'I am glad of it,' said Rollo half laughing. 'What hour shall I say?'
'Why none!' said Hazel emphatically, with a passing thought of wonder at his obtuseness, though at the moment she was deep in her notebook. 'None, thank you.'
Rollo's eyes sparkled, as he stood behind her, and his lips twitched.
'Is that the way you used to handle Mr. Falkirk, when he expressed his wishes about some point of your action?'
'Mr. Falkirk was indulged with a variety of ways.'
'Have you got a variety in store for me?'
'For any deserving objectI am extremely impartial,' said Hazel turning a leaf.
'Won't you give me another variety then, this morning?' said he softly. 'Because I am not going to let you go out on foot to-day, Hazel.'
'Notletme?' Hazel repeated, looking round from her notebook now to ask the question. There was no explanation in the face that confronted her, nor any consciousness of having said anything that needed it. Hazel looked at him for a second, open-eyed.
'What can you possibly mean?' she said.
'If it means interference with your pleasure, I am sorry.'
Probably something in face and figure made this reply more definite than the words, for Wych Hazel's face waked up.
'But it does!' she said. 'I told you so at first.'
'It would interfere with mine very much, to have you go as you proposed.'
'But that is simply!' Hazel suddenly checked her rapid words, and brought her face back over the notebook again; bending down to hide the crimson which yet could not be hid.
'What is "simply"?' said Dane, touching his own face to the crimson. But Hazel did not speak.
'I must go, Hazel,' said he now looking at his watch. 'I have not another minute. I will send Byrom to you for orders.' And with a very gentle kiss to the bowed cheek as he spoke, he went off. And Hazel sat still where he left her, and thought,with her face in her hands now. Thoughts, and feelings too, were in a whirl. In the first place,no, there was no possible telling what came first. But was he going to direct every little thing of her life? Well, she had given him leave last winter, in her mind. That is, if hewoulddo it. But would he really? Somehow she had fancied he would not. She had fancied thatsomehowhe would find out that she had a little sense, and trust to it. She felt so disappointed, and caged, and disturbed.And then she had withstood him!a thing he never pretended to bear. Maybe he had gone off disappointed, too. And one of her old saucy speeches had been on the tip of her tongue! and next time, as like as not, it would slip out, and what should she do then? What should she do now?go out as she was bid, like a good child? Hazel almost laughed at herself for the bound her mind gave, straight back from this idea,which after all was the only one to act out. For the old sweetness of temper had taken to itself no edge, and the old dignity which had so often found its safety in submission did not fail her now. Nevertheless, Wych Hazel rose up and stood before the fire, knotting her fingers into various complications. Yes, it was her duty to go. But when Byrom knocked at the door, Hazel sprang away to the next room and sent her orders by Phoebe. Then, after the old comical fashion, she worked out her waywardness in every possibleproperway that she could. She put on one of her wonderful toilettes, and then went slowly down the broad stairs (thinking fast!)and flashed out upon Byrom like a young empress in her robes. And a sinecure he had of it for the next few hours. To stand at the carriage door and receive the most laconic of orders; to see her pass from carriage to store and from store to carriage, erect and tall and stately, and with no more apparent notice of the icy sidewalks than if they had been strewn with cotton wool. If he followed close to pick her up, Wych Hazel took no notice and gave him no chance. In like manner she did her work with an executive force and gravity which made the clerks into quicksilver and drove one or two old admirers whom she met nearly frantic. They hailed her by her old name; and Hazel got rid of them she hardly knew how, except that it was in a blaze of discomfort for herself. And after that she kept furtive watch; quitting counters and stores, and rushing upor downin elevators, after the most erratic and extraordinary fashion; a vivid spot on either cheek, and eyes in a shadow, and a mouth that grew graver every hour. O if she could but order the coachman to driveanywheretill she said stop!but no such orders could go through Byrom; she must work off her mood at home. And so at last, in the darkest dress she had, Wych Hazel once more sat down before the fire, and put her face in her hands. All through the day, under and over everything else, the old shyness had green growing up, mixing itself with the new,the old dread of having a man speak to her in the way of comment, with a thought of blame. Would anybody do it now? So she sat until steps came to the door and the door opened; then she rose quickly up.
But the matter which had occasioned her so many thoughts, had scarcely given Rollo one; and it was plain he had fully forgotten it now in his gladness at seeing her again after the long day. His face had nothing but gladness; and as he took her in his arms she felt that the gladness was very tender.
'Work all done!' he asked.
'O no.'Hazel was glad too. The dayhadbeen long.
'But I am going to play to-morrow!'
'Well, what about it?'
'Work must wait. We have got a great deal to do. Don't you agree with me, that every full cup ought to flow over into some empty ones?'
'Instead of into its own saucer?' said Hazel, who was rather abstractedly brushing off an imaginary grain of dust from his coat stuff. 'Perhaps it would be safe to allow that I do.'
'Well,' said Rollo laughing at her, 'there are plenty of empty cups.How many can we fill to-morrow?'
'If you have been at work on that problem, no wonder you want play. How many?I do not know. How much too full is your cup to-night?'
'It feels like the widow's inexhaustible cruise of oil. And by the way, I believe that the store from which anybody may supply others, is inexhaustible. Now let us consider.' And he stood silent and thoughtful a few minutes, Hazel not interrupting him.
'I can tell you one thing,' he began again. 'Prudentia Coles would like a black silk dress; and she cannot afford it.'
'I certainly owe her that,' said Hazel,'and a royal purple to boot.'
'How do you "owe" it?'
'For tipping my cup over, once. I wonder whether she thought I was too happy to be let alone?'
'Give her both the dresses, Hazel.Sheis not a happy woman. It will fill her cup for the time being.'
'Then, if you talk of debts,' said Hazel, 'I owe Prim the greatest quantity of wholesome animadversion. It never was of the least use to me,but she ought to be paid for it, all the same.'
'I suppose you deserved it,' said Rollo coolly.
'Do you?' said Hazel.Hadshe? Her thoughts flew over the confusions of the day,then before she began again, Rollo asked,
'Have you written to Mr. Falkirk, Hazel?'
'I? No. I have nothing to say to him.'
Rollo looked at her, first with a grave consideration, and then his lips twitched.
'Nothing to say to him?' he repeated.
'Nothing whatever.'
'Does it fall to me to instruct you in the proprieties? It is due to him to inform him that you are his ward up no longer; that you have done what he would very much have disapproved, and married me at a week's notice; which, you may tell him, was not at all your fault, and done principally for the sake of the men in the Charteris mills. Don't you see, Hazel, that you ought to tell him all this?'
'No,' said Hazel, with one of her old witch looks flashing out for a moment. 'If your right of way does not cover all the disagreeable business, I cannot see what use in the world I can make of it.'
'My right of way?' repeated Dane looking at her.
'Yes. The right to do what you please should be extended to take in all that I do not please.'
'Across all which of mine,yourright of way, I suppose, takes a zigzag track!'
'Underground.'
'It will be dangerous there!' said Dane, his eyes flashing. 'For pity's sake, Hazel, keep it aboveground.'
'Collisions are bad things,' said Hazel,'and switching off on a side track tries one's patience. But about Mr. Falkirkthere never was the least atom of father and daughter between us; he always kept me at arm's length. It was one of the trials of my life. And he has been just throwing me off more and more,a year ago twenty sisters would not have made him leave me alone. And he said nothing but unpleasant things before he went,and I should have to lay all the blame on you. And in short,' said Hazel summing up, 'he could not be angry with my letter, and he could with yours, which would comfort him up.'
Perhaps it was the thought of Hazel's great loneliness that touched him, the very remembrance of which he wished to kiss away; perhaps something else had its share in the caresses which were as tender as they were loving; but then he said softly,
'It would not be the proper thing, Hazel.'
'Well.' A rather long breath gave up the point.
'Don't you see it, Wych?'
'Not quite. But you do not know how he talked before he went away.Nor what sort of a letter I shall be sure to write. I shall tell him that as it distracted my attention to run counter to two people'
'You will write a very gentle and careful one. He loves you very much, Hazel. Which was one reason why he was so unwilling that you and I should get acquainted.'
Wych Hazel looked up at him with absolute terror in her face.'What do you mean?' she said.
'It is not very strange. I have the greatest respect for Mr. Falkirk and not the less because he had sense enough to love you a little too well. Do you remember your making him go to Catskill?'
Wych Hazel's head went down on her hands, without a word; but outside the shielding fingers the distressful colour shewed itself in every possible place. Remember!what did she not remember? things she had done, things she had said.
'He was afraid,' Dane went on smiling, 'that if I had a chance to see you I might choose to take the conditions of the will; he had good reason to fear! You must write him the dutifullest, gentlest, lovingest letter, Hazel; and lay off the blame of everything upon the shoulders that can bear it. Mr. Falkirk knows me. And if, by and by, we could coax him to come and make his home with us, I should be happy.'
'And everybody knew it but me!'said Hazel, thinking out. 'It is good I can do no more mischief.'
'What is that?' said Dane laughing. 'What mischief have you done?'
'HushI was talking to myself. But oh, I am so sorry!' Looks and tones and words and recollections were pouring in upon her like a flood.
'What are you sorry for? You need not be sorry, my little Wych,' said he, changing his tone with the last words. 'You have done him good and given him pleasure for so many years; and I am not without hope that both good and pleasure will be renewed and continued to the end of his life. So write a nice letter to him. And come to dinner in the first place.'
But it was a very remorseful flushed face that came to the table.
'Done him good and given him pleasure!' she repeated;'teased his life out, would be nearer the mark.'
'That did him good,' said Dane dryly. 'That is the way you expect to give me pleasure, you know.'
From under a queer little lift of her eyebrows, Hazel looked up at him. 'Is it?' she said with equal dryness.
'Does the leopard change his spots?'
'The other half of the simile is more like me,' said Hazel, 'however, if you prefer this But given the spots, the pleasure may be to seek.'
'I can find it, as fast as you find the spots. Will you have cheese with your soup?'
Hazel thought within herself, declining the cheese, that the day when she ventured any of her old pranks withthatparticular person, was somewhat remote. Would she ever be "true witch" again, she wondered?
'You forget,' she said. 'You told me once yourself that you thought very few men could stand it.'
'I meantexcept me,' said Dane with great coolness.
'You'didn't, was on Hazel's tongue, but she let it stay there. A quick, bright eye flash went over her, but Dane kept his countenance and went on with his dinner. He understood very well one or two things that were in Hazel's mind. He knew that she thought she had lost liberty in marrying, and he knew that she was mistaken in thinking so; but he also knew that the sweet growths of the mind cannot be forced; and he could wait. He never said "my dear" and "my love" to her, this man; he let Hazel find him out for what he was, all hers; but it might take time. He thought he would give her a little help.
'Have you been studying the third chapter of Genesis?' he asked when the servant was out of the room.
'No. At leastI was thinking of Adam and Eve a little when you came home.'
'In German or English?'
'English prose.'
'It is stronger yet in German. "Dein Wille soll deinem Manne unterworfen sein, and er soll dein Herr sein." I think you have been studying it in German. But Hazel, that is the form of the curse; and the curse is done away in Christ.'
'But,' she said gravely, her timid reserve coming back with the subject,'But the facts stand.'
'What facts? And take some nuts along with the facts.'
'The factsof the case,' said Hazel, using her nut-cracker and laying the meats abstractedly on one side. 'The right of way,and strength to enforce it,for two.'
Again Dane's eyes flashed and the corners of his mouth were a little hard to keep in order.
'Neatly put' he said.
Hazel glanced at him, but she ventured no questions.
'But you forget, Hazel,' he went on gravely, 'that all that, the odious part of it, belongs to a state of things that in Christ is passed away. It remains true, no doubt, that "the man is the head of the woman;" else the lesson-type would not answer to the lesson, which is to set forth the beauty and nearness of the relation between Christ and his church. But in a right marriage it is also true that "the woman is the glory of the man." Not the housekeeper, nor the nurse, or the plaything, still less the bond- woman; but the GLORY. She is the flower of all humanity; the good and beauty and grace of all earth, findsfor himits perfectest bloom and expression in her.'
She listened, smiling a little bit, then grave again.
'But that'she said,'isthatwhat it means?'
'Excuse me. What what means, Wych?'
'The words you quoted. The last words.'
'Do they mean what I said? Certainly.'
'And only that?'
'Can you make them mean more?'
'For me, a good deal more.'
'Then it will be for me, probably. Go on, and explain.'
'No, perhaps not for you. You might be perfectly content with the flower, as you call it, in your hand; content with your content; looking no further.'
'You are mistaken,' said Dane, with a manner both amused and pleased.'I should never be content withmycontent.'
'But I mean' She was not very willing to tell her meaning, the words came slowly,'I used to think, that being so much to him, she must needs be something in herself. That only one who was a glory in herself,couldbe the glory of another. In my way'Hazel added, dropping her voice, ' "She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life." And he will be "known in the gates" by more than the robe of purple and silk which her hands have woven!'
As far as the face could then, it went down, bending over the nuts.Dane looked, and smiled, and took no advantage.
'I do not see the difference of your view from mine,' he remarked quietly. 'You credit me surely with so much discrimination as to perceive that some women are nobody's glory,even as some men are fit to be nobody's head.'
'But people do not think so,' said Hazel. 'People make it out to be just something supplemental,a sort of convenient finishing up the few trifles of comfort or help wherein a man may be deficient. That is what they all say.It is a very queer thing to be a woman!'
'Is it?' said Dane gravely.
'Yes!' said Hazel with one of her outbursts.'Prim tells me not to vex you, and Dr. Maryland wants to know ifif I shall be a help or a hindrance, in short; and he hopes you will not let me have my own way too much. Nobody enquires if you are likely to vex me, or to try my temper, or to develope my character, or help on my work; nobody supposes that Ihaveany work, of my own. But if I have not, that is only the more queer.'
Rollo left his seat, he had got enough of his nuts; and coming behind Wych Hazel gently laid hold of both her hands and freed them from what they held, then insinuated her chair backwards, and lifting her out of it led her away to the fire and wrapped her in his arms. What it was no use to say, he did not say, however; as he had once told her he never asked for a thing he could not have, so even now, he would not supplicate for confidence which must be the growth of time. She would find out for herself, by and by, what concerned him; and the rest he did not are about. So his answer now was a departure. He did not kiss her; he stood pushing back the brown curls from her brow, on one side and on the other, looking down into her face with eyes which Hazel instinctively knew were too mighty to meet just then. So standing he coolly asked her,
'Do you love me, duchess?'
'I was talking of loving myself,' said Hazel, touching up her flushed cheeks with vivid carnation.
'I can do that better than you can. How about your part?'
'Reasoning from factsprobablyI must!'
'You are afraid to confide that deep secret to me? Now I should have no sort of difficulty in proclaiming mine to anybody who had any business to ask it. It must be a queer thing to be a woman!' said Dane, with a dry, humourous, but at the same time wholly tender and sweet expression.
'Have I not confided it?' Hazel said under her breath. 'Do you thinkI would be here? What makes you ask such things? Is it because'But there she stopped.
'Because is a woman's reason. I never do things "because." What did you mean to ask?'
'I think I have been very unlike myself,that is all.'
'I never saw you unlike yourself,' Dane said, in that gentle manner and tone of his which was more than epithets and endearments from other people. Much more; for those might be mere forms of expression, and these could not be. And she enquired no further, nor raised her eyes to search. Standing there with a host of other questions in her mind; questions she would like to have discussed and settled, but which never would be;so she thought. Unless indeed in the slow, unsatisfactory way in which time settles all things.
We cannot go into the next day's shopping, though it was a very enjoyable day for the two people engaged. Some things however must be mentioned, on account of words and thoughts to which they gave occasion.
The business on hand this day was the getting of New Year's gifts for everybody in general. And as, with the exception of the Hollow people, it had also to be for everybody in particular, the work was slow.
Wych Hazel wanted a secretary for Primrose, in the first place. A very beautiful one was found, very perfect also, of some light- coloured ornamental wood, finely inlaid, price three hundred dollars. On the other hand, Rollo got one, a larger one, and equally good, for Arthur Maryland, for just half the money. One for Prim was to be had for a third of the money; but it was unadorned black walnut, and less elegant in form, and Wych Hazel recoiled. She would have got the first without hesitation, only she could not coax any encouragement out of Rollo.
'Do you think she would like this plain one better? Doyou?'
'Suppose the difference, in the charge of a note, lay in one of the drawers, for Prim's poor people? Which do you think would give her most pleasure?'
'Othat,if you put it so. But I wish I could suit myself too.'
'You can suit yourself too,' said Dane smiling.
'I'll think about it as we go along. You see,' she said meditatively,'I could put the cheque in, just the same.'
The next place in order was Stewart's.
'I have something to get for Prim, too,' said Rollo as the carriage stopped. 'I have provided a new patent upright trunk; and I propose to stock all its compartments. Will you help me? Else, I am afraid, I shall never know all that ought to go in.'
'Well,' said Wych Hazel,'is it to be filled with Prim's ideas, or mine?'
'Let us give her what she can use and enjoy; every comfort we can think of; and nothing that would not be a comfort. You wonder at my choice of a present, perhaps; but Dr. Maryland's means are very limited, and I know Rosy often hesitates about a new pair of gloves.'
'I can choose gloves,' said Hazel confidently. 'But thenDane"
'Well?' said he, smiling, as he pushed open the swinging door.
Hazel walked on in a brown study.
'Never mind,let me see you begin, and maybe I shall learn how to go on,' she said, as they paused before one of the dress goods counters.
It was no doubt new experience to her. For Rollo began with soft merino and warm plaid pieces, choosing colours and qualities indeed with care, yet refusing the more costly stuffs which were offered. Except that he indulged himself and Primrose with a delicate gray camel's hair at last. At the silk counter he would not be tempted by the exquisite tender hues which the shopman suggested to his notice; no, he looked, and called for others, and finally bought a good dark green and a black, the mate to Mrs. Coles' black silk. At the glove counter he handed the matter over to Wych Hazel. She had watched all his proceedings with observant eyes, saying hardly a word, unless upon some point of quality where she knew best. Now she faced him again.
'How much do you want to invest in gloves, please?'
'That is not the point. I want to stock her glove drawer. Warm gloves, cool gloves, dark gloves, light gloves; you have carte blanche. I will look on now.'
Hazel laughed a little.
'There are more sorts of gloves than that. What about six buttons?'
'Six buttons!' repeated Rollo.
'Would you like more?'
'I do not understand the question. Excuse me.'
Wych Hazel held out her dainty wrist, turning it slightly that he might see.
'I approve of that,' said he, looking gravely down at it.
'But you cannot have that for nothing,' said Hazel.
'What?' said Dane, his eyes coming now with a sparkle in them to her face.
'Hush!Don't you understand? The more buttons, the fewer glovesif you are limited. That was why I asked how much.'
'The buttons do not look costly.'
'But they arein effect.'
'What's the difference?'
'Every additional button counts for so much,' Hazel told him.
'How many buttons are needed for comfort?'
'Twelve are best for some occasions,and I think I have one box with two.'
'But how many are needed for comfort?' said Dane, inquisitorially now.
'Why!as I told you,' said Hazel. 'The comfort of a glove depends on its fitting your dress and the occasion as well as your hand.'
Dane pulled a card out of his pocket and did a moment's figuring on it with his pencil. Then shewed it to Wych Hazel.
'Do you see?' he said low and rapidly in French. 'If you are buying so manythe difference between two buttons and four would keep a fire all winter for one of Rosy's old women who has no means to buy firing.'
Hazel looked at him with open eyes, shook her head, and moved away. 'I see I must quit my side of the counter,' she said. 'That would not suit Prim's "views" at all. May I get them with two?'
Practically the same thing went on in the lace and embroidery departments. In the shawl room Hazel was better satisfied, though even there Rollo was content with less than a cashmere. Furs, linens, ribbands, what not, claimed also attention; and Prim's trunk took a good while to fill.
The next thing was a new carpet for the long library at Dr.Maryland's.
So went the day, with many an other purchasing errand, general and particular. New Year's gifts for the mill hands and the children; the supplies for the stores which Rollo was purposing to open in the Hollow, where all sorts of needful things should be furnished to the hands at cost prices; an easy chair for Reo, a watch for Mrs. Boërresen; books, pictures, baskets. In the course of things Hazel was taken to a Bank, where a dignified personage was presented to her and she was requested to inscribe her name in a big book, and a deposit was made to her account. Also a good down town restaurant was visited, where they got lunch. It was a regular game of play at last. Rollo bought, as Hazel never before saw anybody, things he wanted and things he did not want, if the shopman or shopwoman seemed to be of sorry cheer or suffering from that sort of slow custom which makes New Year's day a depressing time to tradespeople. And Hazel looked on silently. It was so new to her, this sort of buying, and (it may be said) the buyer was also so new! She did not feel like Wych Hazel, nor anybody else she had ever heard of, and could hardly find self- assertion enough to execute her Chickaree commissions when she saw the right thing. She made a suggestion now and then indeed, "strawberry baskets" and "fishing lines" and "worsted." 'Byo says Trüdchen knit every minute she was at Chickaree,' she remarked. And every suggestion she made Rollo acted upon as fast. Some things were ordered at once to Chickaree; others were sent or taken home with them to the hotel; whither at last, with their work but half done, the two busy and tired people repaired themselves.
A pile of business letters demanded Mr. Rollo's time after dinner; and while he was somewhat absorbed in them, Hazel softly brought a foot cushion to his side and placed herself there. It was almost a demonstration, the way she did this, but she ventured nothing further, and sat there still and absorbed in her own musings. Dark blue silky folds lay all around her, and hands and arms came out a little from the wide lace sleeves and were crossed upon her knees. Rollo's eyes wandered to her from his letters once and again, and finally he tossed them aside, and stooped down to look at her and pull her curls a little away from her face.
'Business can wait!'he said. 'What are you musing about, duchess?'
'O, a host of things!'
'Take me along.'
'So I have.'
'In what capacity, pray?'
'General Superintendent.'
Rollo began to laugh. 'May I know what I am to superintend?'
'Well,' said Hazel, with a bit of a laugh on her side, 'you were filling my trunkand I could not tell how!'
'Why not?' said Dane, drawing a long curl through his fingers.
'Would it be like Prim's?'
'I hope I have more discrimination!'
'As how?'
'Than to think the same things would suit two so different people.'
'O I did not suppose you would muffle me in stone-coloured merino,' said Hazel,'but I mean You know what I mean!'
'I should not like you as well in stone-coloured merino as in blue.Should a bird of paradise wear the plumage of a thrush or a quail?'
Hazel looked soberly down at the dark silky waves that rippled along between her and the firelight. She said not a word. Dane knew well enough what she was thinking of, but chose to have the subject brought forward by herself if at all. He paused a minute.
'Would you like a trunk filled like Prim's?'
Hazel trilled her fingers thoughtfully over the hand that lay near her, and then suddenly asked, 'Does that annoy you?'
'Not much,' said Rollo drily. She glanced up at him.
'Mr. Falkirk used to hate it.And I forgot what my hand was about,' said Hazel; sedately folding it again with its small comrade. From which it as brought back, first to her husband's lips.
'Have we got to the bottom of that trunk yet?'
'There was another point,' said Hazel. 'ShouldI ever get to the bottom of it?'
'Never!' said Dane. 'If getting to the bottom of it implied using what you took out.'
Hazel laughed a little.
'That was just how I felt, 'she said. 'But Olaf'growing sober again'after all you do not answer the real intrinsic question.'
'How would you state that, as it presents itself to you?'
'Whether you would fill itso,' she said, looking musingly at the fire. 'So,not in precise colour, of course, nor exact pattern,but in general qualityand plainnessand' she paused for a word.
Dane said quietly, 'Probably not.'
Hazel went back into an unsatisfied muse.
'One would think,' she said with a half laugh, 'that I was an inquisitor, and that you were answering under torture!'
'Come,' said he, 'you shall not say that again. Question, and I will answer straight.'
'Perhaps my questions were not very straight,' said Hazel, still arguing into the fire. 'But I really did bring two empty trunks from home for myselfand in all these days'
It occurred to Rollo that he had heard and seen nothing of any purchases for herself.
'What in "all these days"?' The words look bare, but the gentle, fine intonation carried all of caressing tenderness that other people are wont to express more broadly.
'I have not known what to put in them.'
'How is that? You never found such a difficulty before?'
'No. Nor now. I could fill them both in one hour. But then if I did not want to take out what was there, I might as well have Prim's at once.'
'Why should you not wish to take the things out?' said Rollo, with an inward smile but perfect outward gravity.
'I made up my mindlast winter,' said Hazel rather low, 'that I should not always like what you like,and that I would act as if I did.'
The first part of his answer Rollo did not trust to words; but presently he told her, half laughing, that he thought she was wrong in both her positions.
'You think I willand you think I won't,' said Hazel. 'Is that it?'
'Not at all. Yes, half of it, the first. I think you will, as you say. But I never want you to act contrary to your own feeling; and if I can help it, I will not let you.'
Hazel laughed a laugh of frank amusement.
'Always excepting,' she said, 'the few occasions when my "feeling" does not answer the helm! You see,' she added, growing grave again, 'I have all my life bought just what I liked, and as much as I liked, andbecauseI liked.'
'Precisely my own principle. I hope you will do it all the rest of your life, duchess.'
'Because you hope my likings will be just right. Yes, but how shallI know? For to begin with, they are as wayward as a west wind.'
'Let us see. What is your motive of choice in buying?'
'Just that I saidwhat I like. I can tell in a minute what suits me.'
'Beauty, harmony, and fitness, being your guiding objects.'
'Well.'
"Well. You cannot be too beautiful, or too harmonious, for my delight.'
Hazel sat silent again, thinking, puzzling. 'I wonder if I understand you?' she said. 'O I have had plenty of comments made on me before,I think I was a sort of shock to some people. Good people, you know,at least the best I saw; nice quiet old ladies, and proper behaved young ones. But then'
'Go on,' said Rollo smiling.
'Well, I used to think they did not knowwhatthey were afraid of. Twenty duck shot would not have mattered, if only the gun had been wrapped in green baize. It was just the glitter of lock, stock, and barrel. Even Prim would have been easy if I had worn things in a heap.'
'You must just reverse those conditions to express my feeling. I believe we ought to make ourselves as beautiful as we can, for the highest reasons. Only,and here perhaps I shall touch the hidden point you have been feeling after,there is one other thing which comes first.'
She looked up, waiting his answer. He looked deep into her eyes as he gave it, with a slight smile at the same time that was very sweet.
'Do you remember?"Seekfirstthe kingdom of God." Therefore, before even beauty and harmony. So, if I can secure these with one dollar, don't you see I must not spend two? The Lord wants the other dollar. Hemaywant both. But generally, for all the purposes of use and influence, I believe he means us carefully to make ourselves, so far as we may, lovely to look at.'
Hazel clasped and unclasped her fingers, working out her problem in the fire again.
'His kingdom in all the world,' she said slowly. 'The harmony having its keynote from heaven, and then finding its accord in all one's earthly life. I suppose that was what David meant"O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise, even with my glory." 'She laid her head down upon her arms and said no more.
'Is the tangle out?' said Rollo gently after a minute.
'That must be the right end of the thread,' said Hazel looking up. 'I ought to be able to find my way. But I shall have to send my boxes back empty, and take six months to find out what I want.'
'You do not know of anything that you want at present?'
'I thought I did!' said Hazel with a laugh,'but how do I know?Maybe I have enough,maybe somebody else wants it more.Olafis there an endless perspective of needy people in thisworld?'
'What if?' said Rollo. 'What if Life were one long day of ministry? does that look like a worthy end of life? and does it look pleasant?'
'I thinkit does,' said Hazel slowly. 'I mean, I think it will. I have not looked yet. But then, at that rate'
'Yeswhat at that rate?'
'At that rate,' said Hazel, raising her eyes to his face, 'you would want the buttons off my gloves as well as off Prim's?'
His fingers were slowly, tenderly, pushing back the curls from her temples and caressing the delicate brow as he spoke, and his eyes were grave now with thought and feeling.
'Hazel, I would like to pour flowers before your path all that long day, and to set you with jewels from head to feet. Diamonds could not be too bright, or roses too fair. And if the world were all right, I believe I should dress you so. But it is not all right. Suppose we were travelling in Greece, and I were captured by those brigands who fell upon the English party the other day; and suppose the ransom they demanded exceeded all you had in hand or could procurehow would you dress till my recovery was effected?'
'That would be you' said Hazel quickly.
'And what is _this?_Our Master, in captivity, hungry, sick, and naked,literally and spiritually,in the persons of his poor people. And the question is, how many can you and I save?'
Wych Hazel rested her chin in her hand and said nothing. She felt exceedingly like "a mortal with clipped wings." Not that she really cared so much about dress, or the various other gay channels wherein she had poured out her fancies; something better than fancy had stirred and sprung and answered Dane's words in her heart as he spoke them. And yet the sudden whirlabout to all her thoughts and habits and ways, was very confusing. So she sat thinking,with every dress she had in the world gravely presented itself, like a spectre, and all the glove buttons insisting upon being counted then and there. Suddenly, from the waves of blue silk a little foot started out into the firelight,a foot half smothered in trimming; rosetted, buckled, beribboned, belaced. Hazel gazed at it,and then gave up, and broke into a clear soft laugh, hiding her face in her hands. But as the laugh passed, she was very much ashamed to find that the hidden eyelashes were wet.
Rollo watched her a little anxiously, but waited.
'What can one do but laugh, when one gets to the end of one's wits?' said the girl, as if she thought it needed explanation. 'Olaf, do you remember the time when you drew my portrait as all hat and wild bushes? I begin to be afraid it was not a caricature, after all.'
'I am afraid it was. Your representative was hardly gracious or graceful, if I remember.'
'Didn't I know what you were thinking of me that day!' said Hazel smiling at the recollection. 'But in serious truth, that is what I have liked, and what I have done. I have been wayward and wild and untrained and unpruned,and then, upon all that I have hung every pretty thing I could get together. And I don't know what will be left of me when I am made over all new. Olaf,' she went on gravely, 'I do understand your harmony,I see how perfect it is, taking in all the lowest notes as well as the highest, whereas mine covered only the poor little octave of my own life. I do see that every part of one's life ought to be in tone with every bit of outside work and life-need and life-demand that can ever come. And I know that only _un_fixedness of heart can make any discord. But there my knowledge ends!' And Hazel leaned her cheek softly against his arm, and looked up wistfully.
'How much more knowledge do you want just now?'
'Where to begin.'
'We will begin with one of those trunks to-morrow. I have a presentiment, that if you do not fill it, I shall.'
Hazel shook her head.
'I fancy I have enough extravagance now on hand to last me some time,' she said. 'Unless you prefer that I should come downor come up!gradually, and not with a jump.'
'Neither come down nor come up. Only go forward keeping the harmony we have chosen to walk in. I am so ignorant of all but men's dress! or perhaps I could speak more intelligibly. But in general, seek your old ends, of beauty and fitnessonly looking to see that things more precious are not pushed out of the way by them, or for them.'
'Duchess,' said Rollo the next morning at breakfast, 'which cabinet maker is to have the honour of your patronage?'
'I suppose it is not fair to do people good against their will,' said Hazel. 'If Prim would like the common oneand the money best, she must have that. But I shall let her knowshechose it.'
'You would not like to be suspected of having practised economy?'
'Not unjustly.'
'How is that an unjust suspicion, which is founded on fact?'
'I am not practising economy a bit. Prim wants a secretaryand you say she would like that best.'
'Excuse me! I said she would like that and the hundred and fifty dollars best; and you will practise economy to give them to her. Nicht?'
'Not at all. Only self-denial. I never did buy ugly things, and I don't like it.'
'Self-denial is almost as good as economy, and one step towards it. But I would remark, that economy and ugly things have no necessary connection.'
'No,' said Hazel'myalternative would be destitution.'
'Economy has no connection whatever with destitution.'
'O there you are mistaken,' said the girl arching her brows. 'But for destitution, it need not exist. But I wish I could think of the right explosive materials to put in Prim's trunk! She wants waking up, Olaf,and you have just stroked her down for a nap.'
Dane's eyes snapped at the speaker across the table; and then he asked in a quiet business tone, 'what sort of lethargy Prim had fallen into?'
'I said nothing about lethargy. I must get a ream of paper initialed in blue and gold, and another in crimson, to help line the secretary. And three journal books in green bevelled antique, and fifty note- books in yellow Turkey morocco. Andhow many gold pens does Prim wear out in a year?'
'You made a profound remark just now on the origin of economy; I should like to have your definition of the thing. Would you favour me?'
'Mind,' said Hazel, laughing a little, 'it is an unproved definition, the word itself being but lately introduced; but at present it seems to me, the doing without what you want yourself, to give it to somebody who wants it more.'
A line of white made itself visible between Rollo's lips, and the curves of his mouth were unsteady. When they were reduced to order again, he asked,
'What more shall we do for New Year in the Hollow?'
Certain cloaks and dresses for women and children, it may be remarked, had already been sent up. Wych Hazel considered.
'Would it be possiblebut we shall not be at home to give them a night Festival. There went no books nor pictures into the Christmas work?'
'BooksI am afraidthey are not ready for. Picturespictures are harmonizing; I am going to get you some; I would like to put a picture in every house. What sort? I have thought about it and failed to decide.'
'Do I want harmonizing in that sense?' Hazel asked with a laugh.
'You want all sorts of things. Go on.'
'Wellfor the picturesI would not get them all alike. It destroys one's sense of possession.'
'True. But the more the variety, the greater the difficulty.'
'What are your nations?'
'Swedes and Germans, a few Irish, a sprinkling of Americans andEnglish.'
'Good pictures of animals, I should think,' said Hazel, going deep into the matter; 'and of ships,and of children. Englishmen would like King Alfred burning the cakes, and Canute at the sea, and I suppose the queen in her royal robes, and the battle of Trafalgar. Then there are bits of the Rhine, and Cathedrals, and Martin Luther, and a Madonna or two, for your Vaterland people,and mountains and ice and reindeer' Hazel broke off with a blush. 'How I run on!'
'We will have them all, for future use,' said Rollo smiling. 'The time will come, but I believe it is not yet. The people are hardly ready. It wouldn't be good economy. You do not understand that subject, I know, but you will excuse me for alluding to it. Now for business.'
Drawing Wych Hazel away from the breakfast table to another table which stood in the room, he opened a bank cheque book which lay there.
'Do you know what this is?'
'I see.'
'This is for your use and behoof. And this other little book containsor will containyour account with the bank. They will keep the account, and all you have to do is to send it to the bank every quarter to be written up. There, in your cheque book, opposite each cheque, you register the amount drawn by that cheque; so as to know where you are. Verstanden?'
'Yes,' said Wych Hazel, 'I have watched Mr. Falkirk often over his.'
'The capital which is represented by ten thousand a year,' Dane went on with business quietness, 'I have settled, absolutely and without reserve, upon you. That amount will be yearly paid in to your account, to be drawn out at your pleasure.'
'Why do you let me have more than I used to have?' she said quickly.
Rollo's lips played a little as he answered,'I think it is good for your health to be duchess in your own right somewhere.'
'What makes you say that?'
'Conviction.'
'Ah hush!I am talking business. Did Mr. Falkirk talk to you about it?'
'No. But Mr. Falkirk did go to Dr. Maryland; and urged that he should prevail with me, before I married you, to settle your fortuneor as much of it as possibleupon yourself. Dr. Maryland refused to urge me, and would do no more than represent to me Mr. Falkirk's wishes. So then Mr. Falkirk wrote to me himself, though as he said, with very little hope of doing any good. And I don't think he did any good'added Dane demurely.
'He did his best to vex me first.'
She stood looking down at the cheque book, her face a study of changing colours. No,this would have been done, though Mr. Falkirk had held his peace. 'Thank you!' she said, suddenly and softly.
'Thank me for what?' said Rollo gayly. 'For giving you back a little piece of your power, after you had lodged it all with me? How did Mr. Falkirk vex you?'
'I suppose really he wanted to vex you,' said Hazel. 'And he knew how to choose his words. Olaf'the soft intonation coming back again'you are very good! But what makes you think I want power?'
'Habit is said to be second nature.'
'Are you afraid of my missing what I used to have?'
'How should you miss it?' said he laughing. 'Are you less of a witch than you used to be?'
She shook her head thoughtfully. 'I do not quite know what I am.Do you expect me to spend all this money wisely?'
'I shall never ask how you spend it, Wych. Only this I would say,spend it. We have far too much now to go on accumulating.'
'Ah,' she said with a breath of satisfaction, 'you are beginning to understand me!'
'What new token have I given of such sagacity?'
'So long as you and Mr. Falkirk had a monopoly of the wisdom, there was no use for my small supply,' said Wych Hazel. 'You never gave me an inch of line. And how you dare suddenly let so much out at once!'she laughed a little, breaking off.
There was infinite grave fondness in the way Dane drew her up to him and putting his hand under her chin, lifted the changeable face to study it. Then kissing her and letting her go, he remarked,
'The rest we hold together, subject to your demands, whenever this stock happens to be insufficient.'
'Yes,'she said, not looking at him,'the first demands, I think, will be to make myself into a business woman. How much of the time are you going to let me work with you in the Hollow?'
'Let you?There is unlimited room for work. I have bought theCharteris mills, Hazel.'
'Have you!I thought he would not be willing.'
'He had stopped work, you know; the people were in terrible distress; the times might not encourage him to go on for some time; and he concluded to accept my offer. I got his answer only last night. I shall telegraph Arthur to-day to let the mills run again.'
'They will keep New Year,' was Hazel's comment.
'One of my new mills is a small one, doing very fine work in cottons, and employs only tow hundred and fifty hands; the woollen mills have eight hundred more. So you see, we have the whole community now to manage and nobody to interfere with us.'
'How many people?'
'Altogetherover two thousand five hundred. And everything to be done for them.'
'Then I can go over every day and busy myself with small matters while you attend to the great.'
'There is enough to do!' Rollo repeated with a smile, but a thoughtful one. 'How do you propose to manage on Sundays?'
'I do not know. As you manage.'
'I must be in the Hollow.'
'All day?'
'All day. I shall hold a service in the morning for the children, in the afternoon for the grown people. My schoolhouse is nearly finished now, quite enough for use. By and by we will have a church there, if all goes as I hope;or two, perhaps; but the people are not ready for that. They are half heathen, and will be less prejudiced against my preaching than any other. So I must give it to them for the present. I have sent up a load of Bibles and hymnbooks.'
Hazel sat thinking.
'I could not preach,' she said. 'I do not know what I could do. Only where there is so muchI suppose I could feel my way and do something.'
'I would be glad of your help in the Sunday-school. Arthur will be there; Prim has her own school at Crocus. Then we could lunch with Gyda, and you could drive back in time for Dr. Maryland's afternoon service. Hey?'
'Why should I drive back?' said Hazel.
'What a question! To go to church.'
'I can go to church in the Hollow.'
'Pardon me. There is no church there, visible or invisible.'
'There will be preachingand you know you always did like to preach to me,' said Hazel with a gleam.
'Dr. Maryland would like to preach to you too.'
'He will find other opportunities.'
'He would, I think, with reason, if you were absent from both services on Sundays. Speaking of work to doHow would you like to send one of the carriages several times a week to take Mrs. Coles to drive?'
'Whenever you likeif she can drive without me. But are you in earnest about Sunday afternoon?' said Hazel with a look that was certainly earnest.
'I am in earnest at present,' said Rollo. 'But we will see. It is something for you to sacrifice, and something for me! but whoever would follow the Lord "fully," Hazel, will find himself called to lay down his own will at every step.'
'So I must economize in you, first of all!' she said. The words slipped out rather too quick, and were followed by a shy blush which did not court notice.
Rollo half laughed and told her that 'economy always enhances enjoyment.'
The purchases for Chickaree and the Hollow, the various packages that found their destination in Dr. Maryland's house, had all been sent straight off where they were to go. There were however many things bought during those two days of New York's work, which had no destination; at least, none as yet known. Such articles had been ordered to the hotel. And it followed, that in the course of a day or two thereafter, the rooms of the suite occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Rollo presented the appearance of a house from which the inhabitants are meditating an immediate journey with all their effects. Packages of all sizes and descriptions had accumulated, to a number which became intrusive upon the notice of said inhabitants.
'What shall we do to make a clearance?' Rollo had said, laughing, as his eyes went round the parlour. 'I wish, Hazel, you would look at these things, and see what use you can find for them. Take Byrom to open packages and do them up again, and let him ticket them according to your orders. Will you? and when I come home I will help. It is a most ridiculous assortment!'
Accordingly, after luncheon, Hazel put on an apron and summoned Byrom, whom she could not have earlier; she was not afraid of interruptions, not being supposed, as she thought, to be in town. The task set her was an amusing piece of work enough, remembering as she did how and where and why many of the articles had come to be bought. Here were baskets, what an array of baskets! which had been purchased from a poor little discouraged seller of wickerware. A large order had first gone off to Morton Hollow; then as Rollo walked round the store he had picked up this and that and bade the woman send it to the hotel; till the dim eyes had brightened up and the hopeless face had taken quite another expression. Here was a package of stationery. Hazel remembered the sickly-looking man who had sold it, in a little shop, far down Broadway; she recollected Rollo's cheery talk to the man and some counsel he had given him about his health; which counsel, coming from so free a purchaser, who paid cash with so ready a hand, stood a fair chance of being followed. Here were books, and there were books; here were pictures; there was a package of hardware. Well Hazel remembered a little corner shop into which her husband had turned to get a dog-chain; and where, finding a slim girl keeping shop, and learning that she was doing it for her father who was ill, he had gone on to buy a bewildering variety of things, which he would not order sent to Chickaree, there being perhaps no one in the shop to pack them. Hazel smiled as she recollected how Rollo found out that he wanted all sorts of things from that little establishment, and how the little girl had looked at him and sprung to serve him before he got through.
Byrom was busy unpacking and Hazel examining; the room was in a confusion of papers and twines and ropes; when the door opened, and there entered upon the scene no less a person than Josephine Charteris, née Powder. The lady's look, on taking the effect of things, it is impossible to describe. Hazel was gloved in dainty buff gauntlets, the folds of her scarlet dress half smothered in the great white apron, ruffled and fluted and spotless,and looked indescribably busy.
'Josephine Powder!I am not receiving company!' she exclaimed.
'Nonsense! I am glad of it. I want to see you, and I don't want to see other people. How youdolook, Hazel! Wellhave you really gone and got married, and told nobody? Is it true?'
'Telling people is not one of my strong points,' said Hazel. 'Phoebe, bring a duster to this chair for Mrs. Charteris.'
'It is one your weak points, I think,' said Josephine. 'Never mind the chair. What made you do things in that way?'
Wych Hazel dismissed her attendants, and went back to her foot- cushion among the packages. 'What makes one do anything?' she asked, beginning upon a series of troublesome knots.
'Hm!' said Josephine.'Not being able to help yourself.'
'O is that it?' said Hazel. 'Therehappily for you, I have found some sugarplums. Do you buy so many now-a-days that you have no taste for more?'
'What on earth are you about?'
'Hard at work on chaos!'
'What sort of chaos?'
'Don't you see?' said Wych Hazel. 'Here are six brackets together, for instance, whichshouldbe one in a place; and I am puzzled in what light to hang these pictures;and these books have no place where to be. And if you want needles, Josephine, or a thimbleor a sewing-bird, or any little trifle like notepaper or a clotheshamper, help yourself!'And her sweet laugh rung out, half for nervousness and half for fun.
'How long have you been married?' was the other lady's impetuous question.
'Since some time last year,' said Hazel, dragging up another package.
'Don't be wicked, Hazel! Were you married at Christmas? KittyFisher says so, and I didn't believe it. Were you really?'
'I suppose Dr. Maryland does such things "really," when he does them at all.'
'Yes!' said Josephine, after a moment's pause and with a half groan, 'that's the worst of it. I wish I could know it was a sham.Ithink marriages ought to be broken, if people want them broken. The law ought to be so.'
Hazel was silent.
'Don't you think, that when people are tired of each other, they ought not to be bound to live together?'
'But you were tired to begin with.'
'No, I wasn't; not so. I thought I could get along with John Charteris. He wasn't a beauty, nor a distinguished speaker, but I thought I could get along with him. Hazel, I hated him before I had been married a week. Men are at your feet till you are tied to them, fast; and thenit's very hard, Hazel!the man is the master, and he likes it.'
'Is that Mr. Charteris?' said Hazel.
'It is every man!'
'Some flourish their sceptres with a difference,' said Hazel, her lips at play. 'Take another bonbon?'
'It's nothing to laugh at!' said the girl bitterly. 'I know you will tell me you warned me,but what could I do? They were all at me; mamma said I must be married some time; and I thought it didn't make much difference; and nowI think I'll run away. Do you like your husband?'
'No,' said Hazel with indescribable arch of her brows, which was however extremely stately. But as she spoke, the very flush of the morningall light and joy and promisestirred and mantled and covered her face. It was unmistakeable; words could not have been clearer. She bent down over her parcels. And Josephine, watching her keenly, saw and read. It was very bitter to her.
'Why,' she said incredulously, though she was not incredulous, 'you used to hate him a year ago. Do you remember when he would not let you ride home with us from the Seatons' one night, and how furious you were? Has he changed?'
'As I never remember hating anybody in my life,' said Wych hazel, 'it is perhaps useless to discuss the question. Do you spend the winter here?'
'He had money enough of his own,' Josephine went on,'he had no business to marry you. Wellmarriage is a lottery, they say; and I have drawn John Charteris. I suppose I must wear him out. If I could wear him out!If it was only Jack Charteris!but he is the sort of man you couldn't say "Jack" to. Spend the winter here? No, I think not. I shall go to Washington by and by. But I don't see that it signifies much where one is; life is flat when one can't flirt; and John won't let me do that any more, unless I do it on the sly. Do you expect to have anything in the world your own way, with Dane Rollo?'
Hazel felt herself (privately) getting rather "furious" now. Yet the girl at her side stirred her pity, too.
'What sort of man can you say "Jack" to?' she enquired, as if she had heard no question.
'You know. A fellow that's anyhow jolly. What are all these things here for?'
'If I were you,' said Hazel, 'I would make Mr. Charteris so "jolly" (lend me your word for once) that he would be delighted to have me say "Jack." '
'I don't want him to be delighted,' said Josephine, 'nor to call him Jack. And a man that smokes all the time can't be made jolly. He didn't use to let me see it, you know; and now he don't care. He ought to live in a house by himself, that's all chimney!'
'Counter attractions would work a cure,' said Wych Hazel, ready to laugh at her own suddenly developed wisdom. 'If you make yourself disagreeable, Josephine, I should think hewouldsmoke, and hide you in a haze.'
'I don't!' said the girl indignantly. 'And nothing on earth will cure a man who smokes. He likes it better than anything except money; far better than me. Try to get your husband'
Josephine broke suddenly off. The door had opened noiselessly, and Mrs. Powder entered, followed immediately by Miss Molly Seaton.
Greetings and congratulations passed of course, according to form.
'Dane is not at home, my dear?' said the elder lady.
'Husbands are not gallant in these days, mamma,' said Josephine.
'But Mr. Rollo is!' said Molly rashly.
'So it seems,' said Josephine laughing. 'Left his lady-love to put his affairs in order; while he is having a good sleighride somewhere, you bet! But you see, she is busy, like a good child.'
'And whatareyou doing, my dear?' said Mrs. Powder.
Juts then the set of Hazel's head would have told keen eyes what she was doingmentally. She was still in her camelshair morning robe; the scarlet folds and the white apron, and herself, making a brilliant spot down among the packages.
'I am putting Mr. Rollo's affairs in order,' she said composedly.
'My dear,' said Mrs. Powder benevolently, 'I am sure he does not want you to open his packages for him.'
'I should think you were going to open a shop, if I didn't know better,' remarked Molly in evident great curiosity.
'She won't tell,' said Josephine. 'I suppose she is keeping her own secret. She wants me to believe that she don't feel the chains of wedlock a bit.'
'Maybe it is too soon for that,' said Molly.
'O is it!' said Mrs. Charteris. 'I should like to see that. Just as soon as the minister has done, and said, "I pronounce you man and wife,"from that minute a man is changed. He is your very obedient servant when he walks up the aisle; dear me, when he comes down!'