When the frugal meal was over, Miss O"Reilly took my hand, and led me to her brother. He was standing on the hearth; he looked down at me, laid his hand on my head, and quietly bade me good-night. His sister offered him her cheek.
"Are you not coming down again?" he asked.
"No. I feel sleepy."
He looked deep into her eyes.
"Nonsense!" she said impatiently, "no such a thing."
He pa.s.sed his arm around her and smiled.
"How handsome you are, Kate!" he observed, with jesting flattery; "woe to my peace of mind when I meet--"
"Not a bit!" she interrupted with a blush and a sigh; "no dark-haired woman will ever endanger your peace. Give me a kiss and let me go."
He embraced her with a lingering tenderness that seemed to have a meaning, for she looked another way, and appeared moved. But at length he released her; she took my hand, led me up to her room, and undressed me in silence. She then looked at me, and said pointedly--
"Well!"
I thought she meant I was to kiss her. I offered to do so, but she put me away, and observed more emphatically than before--
"Well!"
I looked at her thoroughly puzzled.
"Bless me!" she said, in her warm way, "is the child a heathen! Midge, Daisy, whatever your name may be, don"t you know that you must say your prayers before going to bed!"
"I always said my prayers to Papa," I replied, rather offended.
"Then kneel down and say them to me."
She sat on the edge of the bed; I knelt at her feet; she took my hands in hers, and fastening on me her clear brown eyes, she heard me to the end.
Then she put me to bed, closed the curtains, and told me to sleep. I obeyed. I know not how long I had slept, when low moans awoke me. The light was still burning; I sat up softly, and looked through the opening of the curtains. The handsome sister of Cornelius was kneeling before a small table, on which stood a low lamp; its white circle of light fell on an open volume, but she was not reading; thrown back somewhat in the att.i.tude of the penitent Magdalene, with her hands clasped, and her head sunk in her bosom, she was weeping bitterly. She whom I had seen but a few hours before fresh as a flower, cheerful, gay, was now pale as death, and seemed bowed down with grief. Tears ran down her check like rain, but the only words that pa.s.sed her lips were those uttered by Christ in his agony on the Mount--"Thy will, not mine, be done!" And this she repeated over and over, as if vainly thirsting for the resignation she thus expressed.
I looked at her with wonder. At length she rose; I softly sank back into my place; scarcely had I done so, when Miss O"Reilly came up to the bed and opened the curtains. I closed my eyes almost without knowing why. She bent over me, I felt her breath soft and warm on my face; then a light though lingering kiss was pressed on my cheek. I did not dare to stir until I felt her lying down by my side; when I then looked, I found the room quite dark. Miss O"Reilly remained very still; for awhile I staid awake, wondering at what I had seen, but at length I fell fast asleep.
CHAPTER VII.
I awoke late on the following morning, dazzled by the sunshine which filled the room. I was alone, but on the staircase outside I heard Miss O"Reilly"s voice, exclaiming--
"Deborah, will you never clean those door-steps?"
With this, she opened the door and came in. I looked at her; her cheek was fresh, her eyes were bright and clear. With a smile, she asked how I felt, said I did not look amiss, and helped me to rise and dress, chatting cheerfully all the time. A lonely breakfast awaited me in the back parlour; I looked in vain for Cornelius.
"He is gone to the City, and will not be back till five," said Miss O"Reilly. "What, already done! Why, child, how little you eat!" she added with concern; "go into the garden, and run about for awhile."
She opened a gla.s.s door, through which came a green and sunny glimpse of a pleasant-looking garden beyond. Without being small, it had the look of a bower, and a very charming bower it was, fragrant and wild. In the centre of a gra.s.s-plat rose an old sun-dial of grey stone, with many a green mossy tint. Around wound a circular path, between which and the wall extended a broad s.p.a.ce filled with lilac-trees, laburnums, thickets of gorse and broom, and where, though half wild and neglected, also grew, according to their season, cool blue hyacinths, yellow crocuses with their glowing hearts, gay daffodils, pale primroses, snowdrops, shy hare- bells, fair lilies of the valley, tall foxgloves of many a rich dark hue, summer roses laden with perfume, stately holly-hocks, bright China- asters, and bending chrysanthemums--"a wilderness of sweets." The wall itself, when it could be seen, was not without some charm and verdure. It was old and crumbling, but bristling with bright snap-dragons, yellow with stonecrop above, and green below with dark ivy that trailed and crept along the ground. From a few rusty nails hung, torn and wild, banners of tangled honeysuckle and jasmine, haunted by the bees of a neighbouring hive. Two tall and n.o.ble poplars, growing on either side the wooden door by which Cornelius and I had entered, cast their narrow line of waving shadow over the whole place, which they filled with a low rustling murmur. The lane behind was silent; beyond it, and everywhere around, extended gardens, wide or small, where quiet dwellings rose in the shade and shelter of embowering trees; still further on, spread a rising horizon, bounded by lines of low hills, where grey clouds lay lazily sleeping all the day long.
On this autumn morning, Miss O"Reilly"s garden was little more than warm, green, and sunny. The poplars had strewn it with sere and yellow leaves, and of the flowers none remained save a few late roses, China-asters, and chrysanthemums. I walked around it, then sat down on the flag at the foot of the sun-dial, and amused myself with looking at the house.
It was one of those low-roofed, red-tiled, and antiquated abodes, which can still be seen on the outskirts of London, daily removed, it is true, to make room for the modern cottage and villa. It stood between a quiet street and a lonely lane, a plain brick building, with many-paned windows, half hid by cl.u.s.tering ivy, which shadowed its projecting porch, and gave it a gloom both soft and deep. A screen of ivy sloping down to the garden-wall partly separated it from a larger house, to which, in point of fact, it belonged; both had originally formed one abode, but, for the purpose of letting, had thus been subdivided by Miss O"Reilly, whose property they had recently become. On either side, the double building was sheltered by young trees. It looked secluded, lone, and ancient: an abode where generations had lived and loved.
From contemplating it, I turned to watching a spider"s web, one of my favourite occupations in our garden at Rock Cottage.
"Well!" said the frank voice of Miss O"Reilly.
I looked up; the sun fell full on the house, and on the three worn stone steps that led down to the garden, but she stood above them, beneath the ivied porch, where she looked fresh and cool, like a bright flower in the shade. She gazed at me with her head a little pensively inclined towards her right shoulder; then said gently--
"Why do you sit, instead of running about?"
"It tires me so."
"Poor little thing! but you must move. Come in; go about the house; walk up and down stairs; open the cupboards, look, do something."
"Yes, Ma"am," I replied, astonished however at her singular behests.
"You must call me Kate; say Kate."
I did so; for, like her brother, it was not easy to say her nay. With a kind smile, she sent me on my voyage of discovery. The only apartment that interested me was a room lying at the top of the house, and which I considered to be the lumber-room. It was filled with plaster casts and old dusty pictures without frames; the greater part were turned to the wall; a few that were exposed looked dull in the warm sun-light pouring in on them through the open window; before it stood a deal table, on which, after examining the pictures. I got up.
"Daisy, what are you doing there?" exclaimed Miss O"Reilly, entering the room; "come down."
I obeyed, but said in a tone of chagrin--
"I cannot see the sea!"
"I should think not. Why did you turn those pictures?"
"I found them so, Kate."
She frowned slightly; turned them back, every one, then said gravely--
"You must not come here any more; it is the study of Cornelius. He reads and writes here."
"Did he paint them?" I asked, with sudden interest.
"No," was the short answer; "they are by my father, who has been dead some years."
"Why does he not paint pictures too?"
"Bless the child!" exclaimed Miss O"Reilly, turning on me a flushed and annoyed face; but she checked herself to observe, "He is at a bank, and has neither time nor inclination for painting."
With this we left the room, and went down to the front parlour, where she worked, and I amused myself with a book until the clock struck five. I then looked up at Miss O"Reilly.