"You imagined that," said I, "because of your guilty conscience."
"Perhaps so. But it seemed to me that we stood by the well in silence a very long time. You see, Cousin Malcolm, I was not the one who should speak first. I had done more than my part in going to meet him."
"Decidedly so," said I, interrupting the interesting narrative.
"When I could bear the gaze of the villagers no longer, I drew up my reins and started to leave The Open by the north road. After Dolcy had climbed halfway up North Hill, which as you know overlooks the village, I turned my head and saw Sir John still standing by the well, resting his hand upon his horse"s mane. He was watching me. I grew angry, and determined that he should follow me, even if I had to call him. So I drew Dolcy to a stand.
Was not that bold in me? But wait, there is worse to come, Malcolm. He did not move, but stood like a statue looking toward me. I knew that he wanted to come, so after a little time I--I beckoned to him and--and then he came like a thunderbolt. Oh! it was delicious. I put Dolcy to a gallop, for when he started toward me I was frightened. Besides I did not want him to overtake me till we were out of the village. But when once he had started, he did not wait. He was as swift now as he had been slow, and my heart throbbed and triumphed because of his eagerness, though in truth I was afraid of him. Dolcy, you know, is very fleet, and when I touched her with the whip she soon put half a mile between me and the village. Then I brought her to a walk and--and he quickly overtook me.
"When he came up to me he said: "I feared to follow you, though I ardently wished to do so. I dreaded to tell you my name lest you should hate me.
Sir Malcolm at The Peac.o.c.k said he would not disclose to you my ident.i.ty.
I am John Manners. Our fathers are enemies."
"Then I said to him, "That is the reason I wish to talk to you. I wished you to come to meet me because I wanted to tell you that I regret and deplore the feud between our fathers."--"Ah, you wished me to come?" he asked.--"Of course I did," I answered, "else why should I be here?"--"No one regrets the feud between our houses so deeply as I," replied Sir John.
"I can think of nothing else by day, nor can I dream of anything else by night. It is the greatest cause for grief and sorrow that has ever come into my life." You see, Cousin Malcolm," the girl continued, "I was right.
His father"s conduct does trouble him. Isn"t he n.o.ble and broad-minded to see the evil of his father"s ways?"
I did not tell the girl that Sir John"s regret for the feud between the houses of Manners and Vernon grew out of the fact that it separated him from her; nor did I tell her that he did not grieve over his "father"s ways."
I asked, "Did Sir John tell you that he grieved because of his father"s ill-doing?"
"N-o, not in set terms, but--that, of course, would have been very hard for him to say. I told you what he said, and there could be no other meaning to his words."
"Of course not," I responded.
"No, and I fairly longed to reach out my hand and clutch him, because--because I was so sorry for him."
"Was sorrow your only feeling?" I asked.
The girl looked at me for a moment, and her eyes filled with tears. Then she sobbed gently and said, "Oh, Cousin Malcolm, you are so old and so wise." ("Thank you," thought I, "a second Daniel come to judgment at thirty-five; or Solomon and Methuselah in one.") She continued: "Tell me, tell me, what is this terrible thing that has come upon me. I seem to be living in a dream. I am burning with a fever, and a heavy weight is here upon my breast. I cannot sleep at night. I can do nothing but long and yearn for--for I know not what--till at times it seems that some frightful, unseen monster is slowly drawing the heart out of my bosom. I think of--of him at all times, and I try to recall his face, and the tones of his voice until, Cousin Malcolm, I tell you I am almost mad. I call upon the Holy Virgin hour by hour to pity me; but she is pure, and cannot know what I feel. I hate and loathe myself. To what am I coming? Where will it all end? Yet I can do nothing to save myself. I am powerless against this terrible feeling. I cannot even resolve to resist it. It came upon me mildly that day at The Peac.o.c.k Inn, when I first saw him, and it grows deeper and stronger day by day, and, alas! night by night. I seem to have lost myself. In some strange way I feel as if I had sunk into him--that he had absorbed me."
"The iron, the seed, the cloud, and the rain," thought I.
"I believed," continued the girl, "that if he would exert his will I might have relief; but there again I find trouble, for I cannot bring myself to ask him to will it. The feeling within me is like a sore heart: painful as it is, I must keep it. Without it I fear I could not live."
After this outburst there was a long pause during which she walked by my side, seemingly unconscious that I was near her. I had known for some time that Dorothy was interested in Manners; but I was not prepared to see such a volcano of pa.s.sion. I need not descant upon the evils and dangers of the situation. The thought that first came to me was that Sir George would surely kill his daughter before he would allow her to marry a son of Rutland. I was revolving in my mind how I should set about to mend the matter when Dorothy again spoke.
"Tell me, Cousin Malcolm, can a man throw a spell over a woman and bewitch her?"
"I do not know. I have never heard of a man witch," I responded.
"No?" asked the girl.
"But," I continued, "I do know that a woman may bewitch a man. John Manners, I doubt not, could also testify knowingly on the subject by this time."
"Oh, do you think he is bewitched?" cried Dorothy, grasping my arm and looking eagerly into my face. "If I could bewitch him, I would do it. I would deal with the devil gladly to learn the art. I would not care for my soul. I do not fear the future. The present is a thousand-fold dearer to me than either the past or the future. I care not what comes hereafter. I want him now. Ah, Malcolm, pity my shame."
She covered her face with her hands, and after a moment continued: "I am not myself. I belong not to myself. But if I knew that he also suffers, I do believe my pain would be less."
"I think you may set your heart at rest upon that point," I answered. "He, doubtless, also suffers."
"I hope so," she responded, unconscious of the selfish wish she had expressed. "If he does not, I know not what will be my fate."
I saw that I had made a mistake in a.s.suring her that John also suffered, and I determined to correct it later on, if possible.
Dorothy was silent, and I said, "You have not told me about the golden heart."
"I will tell you," she answered. "We rode for two hours or more, and talked of the weather and the scenery, until there was nothing more to be said concerning either. Then Sir John told me of the court in London, where he has always lived, and of the queen whose hair, he says, is red, but not at all like mine. I wondered if he would speak of the beauty of my hair, but he did not. He only looked at it. Then he told me about the Scottish queen whom he once met when he was on an emba.s.sy to Edinburgh. He described her marvellous beauty, and I believe he sympathizes with her cause--that is, with her cause in Scotland. He says she has no good cause in England. He is true to our queen. Well--well he talked so interestingly that I could have listened a whole month--yes, all my life."
"I suppose you could," I said.
"Yes," she continued, "but I could not remain longer from home, and when I left him he asked me to accept a keepsake which had belonged to his mother, as a token that there should be no feud between him and me." And she drew from her bosom a golden heart studded with diamonds and pierced by a white silver arrow.
"I, of course, accepted it, then we said "good-by," and I put Dolcy to a gallop that she might speedily take me out of temptation."
"Have you ridden to Overhaddon for the purpose of seeing Manners many times since he gave you the heart?" I queried.
"What would you call "many times"?" she asked, drooping her head.
"Every day?" I said interrogatively. She nodded. "Yes. But I have seen him only once since the day when he gave me the heart."
Nothing I could say would do justice to the subject, so I remained silent.
"But you have not yet told me how your father came to know of the golden heart," I said.
"It was this way: One morning while I was looking at the heart, father came upon me suddenly before I could conceal it. He asked me to tell him how I came by the jewel, and in my fright and confusion I could think of nothing else to say, so I told him you had given it to me. He promised not to speak to you about the heart, but he did not keep his word. He seemed pleased."
"Doubtless he was pleased," said I, hoping to lead up to the subject so near to Sir George"s heart, but now farther than ever from mine.
The girl unsuspectingly helped me.
"Father asked if you had spoken upon a subject of great interest to him and to yourself, and I told him you had not. "When he does speak," said father most kindly, "I want you to grant his request"--and I will grant it, Cousin Malcolm." She looked in my face and continued: "I will grant your request, whatever it may be. You are the dearest friend I have in the world, and mine is the most loving and lovable father that girl ever had.
It almost breaks my heart when I think of his suffering should he learn of what I have done--that which I just told to you." She walked beside me meditatively for a moment and said, "To-morrow I will return Sir John"s gift and I will never see him again."
I felt sure that by to-morrow she would have repented of her repentance; but I soon discovered that I had given her much more time than she needed to perform that trifling feminine gymnastic, for with the next breath she said:--
"I have no means of returning the heart. I must see him once more and I will give--give it--it--back to--to him, and will tell him that I can see him never again." She scarcely had sufficient resolution to finish telling her intention. Whence, then, would come the will to put it in action?
Forty thieves could not have stolen the heart from her, though she thought she was honest when she said she would take it to him.
"Dorothy," said I, seriously but kindly, "have you and Sir John spoken of--"
She evidently knew that I meant to say "of love," for she interrupted me.
"N-o, but surely he knows. And I--I think--at least I hope with all my heart that--"
"I will take the heart to Sir John," said I, interrupting her angrily, "and you need not see him again. He has acted like a fool and a knave. He is a villain, Dorothy, and I will tell him as much in the most emphatic terms I have at my command."
"Dare you speak against him or to him upon the subject!" she exclaimed, her eyes blazing with anger; "you--you asked for my confidence and I gave it. You said I might trust you and I did so, and now you show me that I am a fool indeed. Traitor!"