"True! I wonder if you will find that sufficient? I doubt I"m half such a good fellow, Clarissa, as you believe me."
In which he comes nearer the truth than he ever came before.
"You are good enough for me," says Clarissa, with fond conviction.
"Will you come with me as far as the vicarage? I must go there to-day, and the walk is such a pretty one, and,"--with a little happy laugh,--"now you are quite my own property, I think I should like to make use of you. Look! there is Ruth Annersley standing at her gate.
Good-morning, Ruth! What a charming day, is it not? after all yesterday"s rain!"
Ruth--who, the moment before, had made a faint movement as though she would willingly have stepped behind the huge rose-bush nearest to her and so have escaped observation--comes slowly forward. She is pale; but the intense heat of the day makes itself felt by all, and has deprived even Miss Peyton"s cheeks of some of their usual warmth. She accepts Clarissa"s proffered hand, and smiles a faint welcome. But when Horace would, too, have shaken hands with her, she declines to see his meaning, and, bowing slightly, turns aside to listen to his companion"s words.
"Were you raking your walks?" asks Clarissa, idly, leaning on the gate, and gazing down the trim-gravelled path that leads to the ivy-clad cottage beyond. "n.o.body"s walks are ever as clean as yours, I think. And your roses are something too delicious, far better than our out-door flowers at Gowran. And so late in the season, too!"
"May I give you one?" says Ruth, dimpling prettily at her praise.
"Thank you. How sweet they are! No, no, Horace, that is altogether too large for your coat. Ruth, will you give Mr. Brans...o...b.. a tiny bud?
That one over there, for instance."
"I don"t think I see it," says Ruth, quietly. She has grown pale again, and her lips have lost a little of the childish petulant pout that characterizes them.
"Just over there. Don"t you see? Why, you are almost looking at it, you stupid child."
"I am stupid, I am afraid,"--with a faint smile. "Come in, Miss Peyton, and gather it yourself." She opens the gate, with a sort of determination in her manner, and Clarissa, going up to the rose-tree, plucks the delicate blossom in dispute. Horace has followed her inside the gate, but, turning rather to the left, falls apparently in love with an artless white rose-bud that waves gently to and fro upon its stem, as though eager to attract and rivet admiration.
"I think I prefer this flower, after all," he says, lightly. "May I ask you to give it to me, Ruth?" His manner is quite easy, very nearly indifferent, and his back is turned to Clarissa. But his eyes are on Ruth; and the girl, though with open reluctance and ill-repressed defiance, is compelled to pick the white rose and give it to him.
"Well, I really don"t think you have shown very good taste," says Clarissa, examining the two flowers. "Mine is the most perfect.
Nevertheless, I suppose wilful man must have his way. Let me settle it in your coat for you."
Almost as she speaks, the flower drops accidentally from her fingers; and, both she and Horace making a step forward to recover it, by some awkward chance they tread on it, and crush the poor, frail little thing out of all shape. It lies upon the gravel, broken and disfigured, yet very sweet in death.
"You trod on it," says Horace, rather quickly, to Clarissa.
"No, dear; I really think--indeed I am sure--it was you," returns she, calmly, but with conviction.
"It doesn"t matter: it was hardly worth a discussion," says Ruth, with an odd laugh. "See how poor a thing it looks now; and, yet, a moment since it was happy on its tree."
"Never mind, Horace: this is really a charming little bud," says Clarissa, gayly, holding out the rose of her own choosing: "at least you must try to be content with it. Good-by, Ruth; come up to Gowran some day soon, and take those books you asked for the other day."
"Thank you, Miss Peyton. I shall come soon."
"Good-by," says Horace.
"Good-by," returns she. But it is to Clarissa, not to him, she addresses the word of farewell.
When the mill has been left some distance behind them, and Ruth"s slight figure, clad in its white gown, has ceased to be a fleck of coloring in the landscape, Clarissa says, thoughtfully,--
"What a pretty girl that is, and how refined! Quite a little lady in manner; so calm, and so collected,--cold, almost. I know many girls, irreproachably born, not to be compared with her, in my opinion. You agree with me?"
"Birth is not always to be depended upon nowadays."
"She is so quiet, too, and so retiring. She would not even shake hands with you, when we met her, though you wanted her to. Did you remark that?"
"Sometimes I am dull about trifles, such as that."
"Yes. By the by, she did not seem surprised at seeing you here to-day, although she thought you safe in town, as we all did,--you deceitful boy."
"Did she not?"
"No. But then, of course, it was a matter of indifference to her."
"Of course."
They have reached the entrance to the vicarage by this time, and are pausing to say farewell for a few hours.
"I shall come up to Gowran to-morrow morning first thing, and speak to your father: is that what you will wish me to do?" asks Horace, her hand in his.
"Yes. But, Horace," looking at him earnestly, "I think I should like to tell it all to papa myself first, this evening."
"Very well, dearest. Do whatever makes you happiest," returns he, secretly pleased that the ice will be broken for him before his prepares for his _mauvais quart-d"heure_ in the library. "And if he should refuse his consent, Clarissa, what then? You know you might make so much a better marriage."
"Might I?"--tenderly. "I don"t think so; and papa would not make me unhappy."
CHAPTER IX.
"A generous friendship no cold medium knows."--POPE.
Mrs. Redmond is sitting on a centre ottoman, darning stockings. This is her favorite pastime, and never fails her. When she isn"t darning stockings, she is always scolding the cook, and as her voice, when raised, is not mellifluous, her family, in a body, regard the work-basket with reverential affection, and present it to her notice when there comes the crash of broken china from the lower regions, or when the cold meat has been unfairly dealt with.
She is of the lean cadaverous order of womankind, and is bony to the last degree. Her nose is aquiline, and, as a rule, pale blue. As this last color might also describe her eyes, there is a depressing want of contrast about her face. Her lips are thin and querulous, and her hair--well, she hasn"t any hair, but her wig is flaxen.
As Clarissa enters, she hastily draws the stocking from her hand, and rises to greet her. A faint blush mantles in her cheek, making one at once understand that in by-gone days she had probably been considered pretty.
"So unexpected, my dear Clarissa," she says, with as pleased a smile as the poor thing ever conjures up, and a little weakness at the knees, meant for a courtesy. "So very glad to see you,"--as, indeed, she is.
In her earlier days she had been called a belle,--by her own people,--and had been expected, accordingly, to draw a prize in the marriage-market. But Penelope Proude had failed them, and, by so doing, had brought down eternal condemnation on her head. In her second season she had fallen foolishly but honestly in love with a well-born but impecunious curate, and had married him in spite of threats and withering sneers. With one consent her family cast her off and consigned her to her fate, declaring themselves incapable of dealing with a woman who could wilfully marry a man possessed of nothing. They always put a capital N to this word, and perhaps they were right, as at that time all Charlie Redmond could call his own was seven younger brothers and a tenor voice of the very purest.
As years rolled on, though Mrs. Redmond never, perhaps, regretted her marriage, she nevertheless secretly acknowledged to herself a hankering after the old life, a longing for the grandeur and riches that accrued to it (the Proudes for generations had been born and bred and had thriven in the soft goods line), and hugged the demoralizing thought to her bosom that a little more trade and a little less blue blood would have made her husband a degree more perfect.
It pleased her when the county families invited the youthful Cissy to their b.a.l.l.s; and it warmed her heart and caused her to forget the daily shifts and worries of life when the d.u.c.h.ess sent her fruit and game, accompanied by kind little notes. It above all things reconciled her to her lot, when the heiress of Gowran Grange pulled up her pretty ponies at her door, and running in, made much of her and her children, and listened attentively to her grievances, as only a sympathetic nature can.
To-day, Clarissa"s visit, being early, and therefore unconventional, and for that reason the more friendly, sweetens all her surroundings.
Miss Peyton might have put in an appearance thrice in the day later on, yet her visits would not have been viewed with such favor as is this matutinal call.
"Cissy is out: she has gone to the village," says Mrs. Redmond, scarcely thinking Clarissa has come all the way from Gowran to spend an hour alone with her.
"I am sorry: but it is you I most particularly wanted to see. What a delicious day it is! I walked all the way from Gowran, and the sun was rather too much for me; but how cool it always is here! This room never seems stuffy or over-heated, as other rooms do."