"I did not say it was a man."
"But you said--"
"I said I loved somebody, and that somebody is you, dear Miss Standish. Indeed I do, and I am ready to fight a duel, if necessary, with Dr. Cricket to prove that my affection is deeper and loftier, and generally better worth having, than his."
What can one do with a girl like that, who winds up with a little mocking laugh and goes off whistling?
I wish she would not whistle. It is one of those mannish tricks of hers which give a wrong impression. Her father ought to stop it; but he is so fond of the girl, and thinks her so altogether perfect and beyond cavil, that he lets everything go. She needs to have some one stronger than herself come into her life. I wonder if he ever will.
It took Jimmy Anstice a long while to find that cloak. When he returned with it, he was still sulky.
"I don"t see why I should have to go on Fred"s errands, when she spoiled my fire-works."
"Ah!" said Flint, "it was a pity about those fire-works. Suppose you bring them down to the inn to-morrow night, and we will set them off there."
Jimmy brightened up; but his sister rather resented the suggestion.
"You need not be afraid to do it here," she said; "I promise not to interfere again."
Mr. Flint ought to have said something civil; but he only turned to Jimmy and proposed that they go out and gather up the rockets before the dampness spoiled the powder.
"Here, are you going without the cloak after all?"
"Oh, thank you!" answered Flint, with sufficient graciousness, as he took it from Professor Anstice"s hand.
To reach the door, he pa.s.sed near Winifred"s chair. As he did so he bent over and spoke to her. I could not hear what he said; but I saw an angry color come into her cheeks, and she answered:--
"Yes, as you say, we seem fated to bring each other ill luck. Let us hope we shall not meet often."
I never heard Winifred make so rude a speech before. But, to my surprise, it seemed to develop an unsuspected amiability in Mr. Flint.
"That might be the worst luck of all," he answered, still in that provoking half-tone of his, and, waiting no answer, he followed Jimmy out of doors. It seemed to me that Philip Brady would have liked to take advantage of the general stir to get in a word with Winifred; but I saw that the girl was really suffering with the burn on her arm, so I told him, without ceremony, that it was time he went home.
Dr. Cricket, who seems to feel personally responsible for these young men, evidently thought my behavior ungracious and inhospitable. To make amends, he followed Philip to the door, and called out after him and Mr. Flint:--
"Oh, by the way, we"re going up to Flying Point for a clam-bake some evening this week. Would you care to go too?"
"By all means, if you will be good enough to take us into the party,"
Philip answered heartily. If his friend said anything, it was lost in the fog which was rolling in thick from the ocean.
I never take prejudices; but I often have an instinct about people before I know them, and this instinct tells me that I am not going to like this Mr. Flint. He is so self-sufficient,--not conceited, but completely satisfied with his own judgments. When he asks any one"s opinion, he does it as if it were a mere matter of curiosity how such a person might feel, not with any idea of being influenced. I can stand this from a person with strong convictions; but this young man seems to have none. He actually smiled when I quoted Dr. Channing.
"Perhaps you never heard of him," I said, a little irritated by that supercilious smile of his.
"Oh, yes," he answered; "but he was at such pains to set himself up in opposition to my ancestors, that family pride compels me to resent it, though my personal prejudices may be in his favor."
I cannot abide such trifling. It seems to make it ridiculous in any one to be in earnest.
P. S.--Dr. Cricket asked me to-day if I would marry him. I told him he was an old fool; but I could not make him believe it.
CHAPTER VII
ON THE BEACH
"The curving land, with its cool white sand, Lies like a sickle beside the sea."
The next morning dawned cloudless. Nature, radiant in her bountiful splendor, seemed to give herself to man, who, in response, thrilled with something of the primal impulse which stirred his pulses in the golden days before he had separated himself from the beneficent currents of the Earth Mother"s vitality to shut himself up within brick walls with artificial heat, artificial light, and artificial stimulants.
On such a day, it is good to be alive. Flint felt the sunshine in his blood as he stepped out into the fresh, open air. For a while he hesitated as to the use to which he should put the morning in order to secure the utmost of its bounty. Then he bethought him of his duty in returning the blue golf cape which he reproached himself as an idiot for having taken. Brady had gone crabbing with Marsden, so Flint could not delegate the duty to him, as he had intended. Accordingly, slinging the wrap over his shoulder, in the middle of the morning, he started on the path which ran along among the scrub-oak and blueberry patches, to lose itself on the curving stretch of beach which lay between the inn and Captain"s Point, where stood the Whites" house known in the region of Nepaug as "The White-House."
The Point stretched along at the mouth of the little harbor, one side thrust boldly out cliffwise into the ocean, the other sliding by soft degrees to the margin of the salt-water lagoon. On the crest of the cliff, and commanding a fine view of both sea and sh.o.r.e, rose the White-House, originally owned and built by a sea-captain who could not live without the sea, even when he had ceased to live on it. For years the Captain took his daily walk on the little platform railed in from the slanting roof, and scanned the horizon with his gla.s.s, taking note of every sail, till at length he walked and gazed no more, and his grave was made in the little hollow that dips behind the house. The places which had known him knew him no more, and the house was let to strangers.
The Point, however, retained his name; and the white railing around the Captain"s walk gleamed in the sunlight from the crest of the cliff as bright as when he leaned upon it to sweep the face of the waters with his gla.s.s.
Flint did the Captain the honor to bestow a pa.s.sing thought on him this morning, to be vaguely sorry for him, and to reflect that it was really a fine thing to be above ground when the sun was shining like this. To be sure, life had its vexations; but they were so brief, and there was so much time in which to be dead!
Flint had not gone many paces along the beach before he saw Jimmy Anstice digging clams out on the oozy flats left bare by the receding tides, his knickerbockers rolled well up on his legs, and a great pail set on the mud beside him.
The boy"s hat was pushed far back on his head, and the sun fell full on his face. Even at this distance, the resemblance to his sister was so marked as to be almost comical. The eyes were the same. The nose, with its unmistakable upward turn, a burlesque on the short, straight one which lent piquancy to Winifred"s face. The soft, subtle curve of her cheek developed in Jimmy to a hardened rotundity inevitably suggesting the desire to pinch it, which one feels toward the tomato pin-cushions on exhibition at church fairs.
Nevertheless, despite freckles bestowed by nature, and grime artificially acquired, Jimmy Anstice was a well-looking lad, and added a distinct note of human interest to the barren flats, as he stood, spade in hand, staring at Flint.
"Come out here!" he called.
"No, thank you," answered Flint. "Not with my boots on. What are you about? Clamming, I suppose."
"Oh, no--fishing!" answered Jimmy, with fine sarcasm. "Come and help me pull in the mackerel, can"t you?" Then he turned his back and began his digging once more. At the same moment Flint caught a glimpse of a red hat against a seaweed covered rock. Obeying an impulse which was rather a surprise to himself, he directed his course toward it. He found, as he surmised, that it belonged to Winifred Anstice, who sat reading, comfortably ensconced with her back against the low sandbank, and her feet stretched out in front of her. She looked up at Flint"s approach, but made no change in her att.i.tude as he came and stood over her. He found it a little harder than he had expected to make a conversational beginning. After a second"s hesitation he asked:
"How is the wrist?"
"Better, thanks! but still in close confinement," Winifred answered, throwing back her shawl and revealing the bandaged arm.
"You had a narrow escape."
"Very."
"I hope you have not felt the need of the cape you were kind enough to lend me. I was just on my way to carry it home."
"And, having found the owner, you need not pursue your journey any further."
Flint felt inwardly chagrined. This, then, was her interpretation of his stopping to speak to her,--that he might be rid of his trouble.
"Thank you," he said stiffly; "but unless you need it, I prefer to take it back to the house."
"Very well," said his companion, "as you please." Then, moved evidently by a p.r.i.c.k of conscience, "Perhaps you will rest awhile before climbing the hill."