"I never asked her whether I might take lessons from your father, either."
"No, of course not; but"--
"But what?"
"I don"t know. I don"t want to do it if she would not like it."
"Why shouldn"t she like it? She has nothing to do with it. It is I who am going to give you the lessons, not she. And now for a lesson in botany."
He brought out a quant.i.ty of his dried flowers, beautifully preserved and arranged; and showed Esther one or two groups of plants, giving her various initiatory instruction by the way. It was a most delightful half hour to the little girl; and she went home after it, with her Latin grammar in her hands, very much aroused and wakened up and cheered from her dull condition of despondency; just what Pitt had intended.
CHAPTER V.
_CONTAMINATION_.
The lessons went on, and the interest on both sides knew no flagging.
Dallas had begun by way of experiment, and he was quite contented with his success. In his room, over Latin and botany, at her own home, over history and the boxes of coins, he and Esther daily spent a good deal of time together. They were pleasant enough hours to him; but to her they were sources of life-giving nourishment and delight. The girl had been leading a forlorn existence; mentally in a desert and alone; and, added to that, with an unappeased longing for her departed mother, and silent, quiet, wearing grief for the loss of her. Even now, her features often settled into the dulness which had so struck Dallas; but gradually there was a lightening and lifting of the cloud: when studying she was wholly intent on her business, and when talking or reciting or examining flowers there was a play of life and thought and feeling in her face which was a constant study to her young teacher, as well as pleasure, for the change was his work. He read indications of strong capacity; he saw the tokens of rare sensitiveness and delicacy; he saw there was a power of feeling as well as a capacity for suffering covered by the quiet composure and reserve of manner and habit which, he knew, were rather signs of the depth of that which they covered.
Esther interested him. And then, she was so simply upright and honest, and so n.o.ble in all her thoughts, so high-bred by nature as well as education, that her young teacher"s estimation constantly grew, and to interest was soon added liking. He had half expected that when the novelty was off the pleasure of study would be found to falter; but it was no such matter. Esther studied as honestly as if she had been a fifth form boy at a good school; with a delight in it which boys at school, in any form, rarely bring to their work. She studied absorbedly, eagerly, persistently; whatever pleasure she might get by the way, she was plainly bent on learning; and she learned of course fast. And in the botanical studies they carried on together, and in the historical studies which had the coins for an illumination, the child showed as keen enjoyment as other girls of her age are wont to feel in a story-book or in games and plays. Of games and plays Esther knew nothing; she had no young companions, and never had known any; her intercourse had been almost solely with father and mother, and now only the father was left to her. She would have been in danger of growing morbid in her sorrow and loneliness, and her whole nature might have been permanently and without remedy dwarfed, if at this time of her life she had been left to grow like the wild things in the woods, without sympathy or care. For some human plants need a good deal of both to develop them to their full richness and fragrance; and Esther was one of these. The loss of her mother had threatened to be an irreparable injury to her. Colonel Gainsborough was a tenderly affectionate father: still, like a good many men, he did not understand child nature, could not adapt himself to it, had no sort of notion of its wants, and no comprehension that it either needed or could receive and return his sympathy. So he did not give sympathy to his child, nor dreamed that she was in danger of starving for want of it. Indeed, he had never in his life given much sympathy to anybody, except his wife; and in the loss of his wife, Colonel Gainsborough thought so much of himself was lost that the remainder probably would not last long. He thought himself wounded to death. That it might be desirable, and that it might be duty to live for his daughter"s sake, was an idea that had never entered his very masculine heart. Yet Colonel Gainsborough was a good man, and even had the power of being a tender one; he had been that towards his wife; but when she died he felt that life had gone from him.
All this, more or less, young Dallas came to discern and understand in the course of his a.s.sociations with the father and daughter. And now it was with a little pardonable pride and a good deal of growing tenderness for the child, that he saw the change going on in Esther.
She was always, now as before, quiet as a mouse in her father"s presence; truly she was quiet as a mouse everywhere; but under the outward quiet Dallas could see now the impulse and throb of the strong and sensitive life within; the stir of interest and purpose and hope; the waking up of the whole nature; and he saw that it was a nature of great power and beauty. It was no wonder that the face through which this nature shone was one of rare power and beauty too. Others could see that, besides him.
"What a handsome little girl that is!" remarked the elder Dallas one evening. Esther had just left the house, and his son come into the room.
"It seems to me she is here a great deal," Mrs. Dallas said, after a pause. The remark about Esther"s good looks called forth no response.
"I see her coming and going pretty nearly every day."
"Quite every day," her son answered.
"And you go there every day!"
"I do. About that."
"Very warm intercourse!"
"I don"t know; not necessarily," said young Dallas. "The cla.s.sics are rather cool--and Numismatics refreshing and composing."
"Numismatics! You are not teaching that child Numismatics, I suppose?"
"She is teaching me."
Mrs. Dallas was silent now, with a dissatisfied expression. Her husband repeated his former remark.
"She"s a handsome little maid. Are you teaching her, Pitt?"
"A little, sir."
"What, pray? if I may ask."
"Teaching her to support existence. It about comes to that."
"I do not understand you, I confess. You are oracular."
"I did not understand _her_, until lately. It is what n.o.body else does, by the way."
"Why should not anybody else understand her?" Mrs. Dallas asked.
"Should,--but they do not. That"s a common case, you know, mother."
"She has her father; what"s the matter with him?"
"He thinks a good deal is the matter with him."
"Regularly hipped," said the elder Dallas. "He has never held up his head since his wife died. He fancies he is going after her as fast as he can go. Perhaps he is; such fancies are often fatal."
"It would do him good to look after his child," Mrs. Dallas said.
"I wish you would put that in his head, mother."
"Does he _not_ look after her?"
"In a sort of way. He knows where she is and where she goes; he has a sort of outward care of her, and so far it is very particular care; but there it stops."
"She ought to be sent to school."
"There is no school here fit for her."
"Then she should be sent away, where there _is_ a school fit for her."
"Tell the colonel so."
"I shall not meddle in Colonel Gainsborough"s affairs," said Mrs.
Dallas, bridling a little; "he is able to manage them himself; or he thinks he is, which comes to the same thing. But I should say, that child might better be in any other hands than his."
"Well, she is not shut up to them," said young Dallas, "since I have taken her in hand."
He strolled out of the room as he spoke, and the two elder people were left together. Silence reigned between them till the sound of his steps had quite ceased to be heard.
Mrs. Dallas was working at some wool embroidery, and taking her st.i.tches with a thoughtful brow; her husband in his easy-chair was carelessly turning over the pages of a newspaper. They were a contrast.
She had a tall, commanding figure, a gracious but dignified manner, and a very handsome, stately face. There was nothing commanding, and nothing gracious, about Mr. Dallas. His figure was rather small, and his manner insignificant. He was not a handsome man, either, although he may be said to have but just missed it, for his features were certainly good; but he did miss it. n.o.body spoke in praise of Mr.
Dallas"s appearance. Yet his face showed sense; his eyes were shrewd, if they were also cold; and the mouth was good; but the man"s whole air was unsympathetic. It was courteous enough; and he was careful and particular in his dress. Indeed, Mr. Dallas was careful of all that belonged to him. He wore long English whiskers of sandy hair, the head crop being very thin and kept very close.
"Hildebrand," said Mrs. Dallas when the sound of her son"s footsteps had died away, "when are you going to send Pitt to college?"