Aylwin

"Ah, but where"s the money that was in it, Tom? Where"s the money?"

said I, flourishing one of my crutches, for I was worked up to a state of high excitement when I recalled my own wrongs and Tom"s frauds, and I forgot his relationship to the little girl. "Where are the bright new half-crowns that were _in_ the money-box when I left it with you--the half-crowns that got changed into pennies, Tom?

Where are they? What"s the use of having a skull for a money-box if it"s got no money in it? That"s what _I_ want to know, Tom!"

"Here"s a young gentleman," said Tom, "as I"ve done all these things for, and how does he treat me? He says, "Why, Tom, you know you"re drunk, you silly old fool.""

At this pathetic appeal the little girl sprang up and turned towards me with the ferocity of a young tigress. Her little hands were tightly clenched, and her eyes seemed positively to be emitting blue sparks. Many a bold boy had I encountered on the sands before my accident, and many a fearless girl, but such an impetuous antagonist as this was new. I leaned on my crutches, however, and looked at her unblenchingly.

"You wicked English boy, to make my father cry," said she, as soon as her anger allowed her to speak. "If you were not lame I"d--I"d--I"d hit you."

I did not move a muscle, but stood lost in a dream of wonder at her amazing loveliness. The fiery flush upon her face and neck, the bewitching childish frown of anger corrugating the brow, the dazzling glitter of the teeth, the quiver of the full scarlet lips above and below them, turned me dizzy with admiration.

Her eyes met mine, and slowly the violet flames in them began to soften. Then they died away entirely as she murmured,

"You wicked English boy, if you hadn"t--beautiful--beautiful eyes, I"d kill you."

By this time, however, Tom had entirely forgotten his grievance against me, and gazed upon Winifred in a state of drunken wonderment.

"Winifred," he said, in a tone of sorrowful reproach, "how dare you speak like that to Master Aylwin, your father"s best friend, the only friend your poor father"s got in the world, the friend as I give ferret-eyed rabbits to, and tame hares, and beautiful skulls? Beg his pardon this instant, Winifred. Down on your knees and beg my friend"s pardon this instant, Winifred."

The poor little girl stood dazed, and was actually sinking down on her knees on the gra.s.s before me.

I cried out in acute distress,

"No, no, no, no, Tom, pray don"t let her--dear little girl! beautiful little girl!"

"Very well, Master Aylwin," said Tom grandly, "she sha"n"t if you don"t like, but she _shall_ go and kiss you and make it up."

At this the child"s face brightened, and she came and laid her little red lips upon mine. Velvet lips, I feel them now, soft and warm--I feel them while I write these lines.

Tom looked on for a moment, and then left us, blundering away towards Raxton, most likely to a beer-house.

He told the child that she was to go home and mind the house until he returned. He gave her the church key to take home. We two were left alone in the churchyard, looking at each other in silence, each waiting for the other to speak. At last she said, demurely, "Good-bye; father says I must go home."

And she walked away with a business-like air towards the little white gate of the churchyard, opening upon what was called "The Wilderness Road." When she reached the gate she threw a look over her shoulder as she pa.s.sed through. It was that same look again--wistful, frank, courageous. I immediately began to follow her, although I did not know why. When she saw this she stopped for me. I got up to her, and then we proceeded side by side in perfect silence along the dusty narrow road, perfumed with the scent of wild rose and honeysuckle.

Suddenly she stopped and said,

"I have left my hat on the tower," and laughed merrily at her own heedlessness.

She ran back with an agility which I thought I had never seen equalled. It made me sad to see her run so fast, though once how it would have delighted me! I stood still; but when she reached the church porch she again looked over her shoulder, and again I followed her:--I did not in the least know why. That look I think would have made me follow her through lire and water--it _has_ made me follow her through fire and water. When I reached her she put the great black key in the lock. She had some difficulty in turning the key, but I did not presume to offer such services as mine to so superior a little woman. After one or two fruitless efforts with both her hands, each attempt accompanied with a little laugh and a little merry glance in my face, she turned the key and pushed open the door.

We both pa.s.sed into the ghastly old church, through the green gla.s.s windows of which the sun was shining, and illuminating the broken remains of the high-hacked pews on the opposite side. She ran along towards the belfry, and I soon lost her, for she pa.s.sed up the stone steps, where I knew I could not follow her.

In deep mortification I stood listening at the bottom of the steps--listening to those little feet crunching up the broken stones--listening to the rustle of her dress against the narrow stone walls, until the sounds grew fainter and fainter, and then ceased.

Presently I heard her voice a long way up, calling out, "Little boy, if you go outside you will see something." I guessed at once that she was going to exhibit herself on the tower, where, before my accident, I and my brother Frank were so fond of going. I went outside the church and stood in the graveyard, looking up at the tower. In a minute I saw her on it. Her face was turned towards me, gilded by the golden sunshine. I could, or thought I could, even at that distance, see the flash of the bright eyes looking at me. Then a little hand was put over the parapet, and I saw a dark hat swinging by its strings, as she was waving it to me. Oh! that I could have climbed those steps and done that! But that exploit of hers touched a strange chord within me. Had she been a boy, I could have borne it in a defiant way; or had she been any other girl than this, my heart would not have sunk as it now did when I thought of the gulf between her and me. Down I sat upon a grave, and looked at her with a feeling quite new to me.

This was a phase of cripplehood I had not contemplated. She soon left the tower, and made her appearance at the church door again. After locking it, which she did by thrusting a piece of stick through the handle of the key, she came and stood over me. But I turned my eyes away and gazed across the sea, and tried to deceive myself into believing that the waves, and the gulls, and the sails dreaming on the sky-line, and the curling clouds of smoke that came now and then from a steamer pa.s.sing Dullingham Point were interesting me deeply.

There was a remoteness about the little girl now, since I had seen her unusual agility, and I was trying to harden my heart against her.

Loneliness I felt was best for me. She did not speak, but stood looking at me. I turned my eyes round and saw that she was looking at my crutches, which were lying beside me aslant the green hillock where I sat. Her face had turned grave and pitiful.

"Oh! I forgot," she said. "I wish I had not run away from you now."

"You may run where you like for what I care," I said. But the words were very shaky, and I had no sooner said them than I wished them back. She made no reply for some time, and I sat plucking the wild-flowers near my hands, and gazing again across the sea. At last she said,

"Would you like to come in our garden? It"s such a nice garden."

I could resist her no longer. That voice would have drawn me had she spoken in the language of the Toltecs or the lost Zamzummin. To describe it would of course be impossible. The novelty of her accent, the way in which she gave the "h" in "which," "what," and "when," the Welsh rhythm of her intonation, were as bewitching to me as the _timbre_ of her voice. And let me say here, once for all, that when I sat down to write this narrative, I determined to give the English reader some idea of the way in which, whenever her emotions were deeply touched, her talk would run into soft Welsh diminutives; but I soon abandoned the attempt in despair. I found that to use colloquial Welsh with effect in an English context is impossible without wearying English readers and disappointing Welsh ones.

Here, indeed, is one of the great disadvantages under which this book will go out to the world. While a story-teller may reproduce, by means of orthographical devices, something of the effect of Scottish accent, Irish accent, or Manx accent, such devices are powerless to represent Welsh accent.

I got up in silence, and walked by her side out of the churchyard towards her father"s cottage, which was situated between the new church and the old, and at a considerable distance from the town of Raxton on one side, and the village of Graylingham on the other. Her eager young limbs would every moment take her ahead of me, for she was as vigorous as a fawn. But by the time she was half a yard in advance, she would recollect herself and fall back; and every time she did so that same look of tenderness would overspread her face.

At last she said, "What makes you stare at me so, little boy?"

I blushed and turned my head another way, for I had been feasting my eyes upon her complexion, and trying to satisfy myself as to what it really was like. Indeed, I thought it quite peculiar then, when I had seen so few lovely faces, as I always did afterwards, when I had seen as many as most people. It was, I thought, as though underneath the sunburn the delicate pink tint of the hedge-rose had become mingled with the bloom of a ripening peach, and yet it was like neither peach nor rose. But this tone, whatever it was, did not spread higher than the eyebrows. The forehead was different. It had a singular kind of pearly look, and her long slender throat was almost of the same tone: no, not the same, for there was a transparency about her throat unlike that of the forehead. This colour I was just now thinking looked something like the inside of a certain mysterious sh.e.l.l upon my father"s library shelf.

As she asked me her question she stopped, and looked straight at me, opening her eyes wide and round upon me. This threw a look of innocent trustfulness over her bright features which I soon learnt was the chief characteristic of her expression and was altogether peculiar to herself. I knew it was very rude to stare at people as I had been staring at her, and I took her question as a rebuke, although I still was unable to keep my eyes off her. But it was not merely her beauty and her tenderness that had absorbed my attention.

I had been noticing how intensely she seemed to enjoy the delights of that summer afternoon. As we pa.s.sed along that road, where sea-scents and land-scents were mingled, she would stop whenever the sunshine fell full upon her face; her eyes would sparkle and widen with pleasure, and a half-smile would play about her lips, as if some one had kissed her. Every now and then she would stop to listen to the birds, putting up her finger, and with a look of childish wisdom say, "Do you know what that is? That"s a blackbird--that"s a thrush--that"s a goldfinch. Which eggs do you like best--a goldfinch"s or a bullfinch"s? _I_ know which _I_ like best."

III

While we were walking along the road a sound fell upon my ears which in my hale days never produced any very unpleasant sensations, but which did now. I mean the cackling of the field people of both s.e.xes returning from their day"s work. These people knew me well, and they liked me, and I am sure they had no idea that when they ran past me on the road their looks and nods gave me no pleasure, but pain; and I always tried to avoid them. As they pa.s.sed us they somewhat modified the noise they were making, but only to cackle, chatter, and bawl and laugh at each other the louder after we were left behind.

"Don"t you wish," said the little girl meditatively, "that men and women had voices more like the birds?" The idea had never occurred to me before, but I understood in a moment what she meant, and sympathised with her. Nature of course has been unkind to the lords and ladies of creation in this one matter of voice.

"Yes, I do." I said.

"I"m so glad you do," said she. "I"ve so often thought what a pity it is that G.o.d did not let men and women talk and sing as the birds do.

I believe He did let "em talk like that in the Garden of Eden, don"t you?"

"I think it very likely," I said.

"Men"s voices are so rough mostly and women"s voices are so sharp mostly, that it"s sometimes a little hard to love "em as you love the birds."

"It is," I said.

"Don"t you think the poor birds must sometimes feel very much distressed at hearing the voices of men and women, especially when they all talk together?"

The idea seemed so original and yet so true that it made me laugh; we both laughed. At that moment there came a still louder, noisier clamour of voices from the villagers.

"The rooks mayn"t mind." said the little girl, pointing upwards to the large rookery close by. whence came a noise marvellously like that made by the field-workers. "But I"m afraid the blackbirds and thrushes can"t like it. I do so wonder what they say about it."

After we had left the rookery behind us and the noise of the villagers had grown fainter, we stood and listened to the blackbirds and thrushes. She looked so joyous that I could not help saying, "Little girl, I think you"re very happy, ain"t you?"

"Not quite," she said, as though answering a question she had just been putting to herself. "There"s not enough wind."

"Then do _you_ like wind?" I said in surprise and delight.