"It is Miss Dulany?" he inquired, with a smile which seemed to ask pardon for his temerity.
"I am Katrine Dulany," the girl answered, gravely, for the readjustment from the music and the silence was not easily made.
"I was fortunate enough to hear you sing. It almost made me forget to say that I am Mr. Ravenel."
"I know," Katrine answered. "The plantation has expected your coming."
A silence followed, during which, with no embarra.s.sment, she retained her position, waiting for him to pa.s.s. The indifference of it pleased him.
"I was going to see your father at the lodge. The roads are unfamiliar, and the path, after two years" absence, a bit lonely." The sadness which accompanied the words was honest, but it seemed for some more personal sorrow than it was.
"My father is not well," Katrine said, hastily. "I am afraid you cannot see him, Mr. Ravenel. May I ask him to go to you to-morrow instead?"
There was entreaty in her voice, and Frank knew the truth on an instant.
"I cannot have you carrying messages for me."
"Seeing that I offered myself"--she suggested, with a smile.
"--is no reason that I should trespa.s.s on your kindness, so I shall carry my message myself." This quite firmly.
"I will sing again if you stay." She looked at him through her long lashes without turning her head. "You see," she added, "I have made up my mind."
"It"s a premium on discourtesy," he answered, "but I yield."
Near the place where she stood there was a fallen log, and he seated himself upon it, placing his hat on the ground as though for a continued stay, regarding her curiously.
She was the daughter of his drunken overseer, a child in years, yet she showed neither embarra.s.sment nor eagerness; indeed, she conveyed to him the impression that it was profoundly equal to her whether he went or stayed.
"Tell me," he said, "before you sing, where have you studied?"
"I?" she laughed, but the laugh was not all mirthful. "In Paris, in London, in Rome, in New York." There was bitterness in her tone. "I am a _gamin_ of the world, monsieur."
"Tell me," he repeated, insistently.
She made no response, but stood, with her profile toward him, looking into the sunset.
"Won"t you tell me?" he asked again, his tone more intimate than before.
"Ah, why should I?" And then, with a sudden veering: "After all, there is little to tell. I was born in Paris of poor--but Irish--parents." She smiled as she spoke. "My mother was a great singer, whose name I will not call. She married my father; left him and me. I do not remember her.
Since her death my father has been a spent man. We have wandered from place to place. When he found work I was sent to some convent near by.
The Sisters have taught me. For three months I studied with Barili. I have sung in the churches. Finally, Mr. McDermott, on the next plantation, met us in New York, recommended my father for this work, and we came here."
She turned from him as she ended the telling. "What shall I sing?" she asked.
""The Serenade.""
"Schubert"s?"
"There is but one."
"It is difficult without the accompaniments but I will try:
""All the stars keep watch in heaven While I sing to thee, And the night for love was given-- Darling, come to me-- Darling, come to me!""
She ended, her hands clasped before her, her lithe figure, by G.o.d-given instinct for song, leaned forward, and Francis Ravenel was conscious that the pa.s.sion in the voice had nothing to do with his presence; that it was the music alone of which she thought, and for the first time in his life he touched the edge of the knowledge that _a great gift sets its owner as a thing apart_.
"Sometime," he said, "when you have become famous, and all the world is singing your praises, I shall say, "Once she sang for me alone, at twilight, under the beeches, in a far land," and the people will take off their hats to me, as to one who has had much honor."
He smiled as he spoke. It was the smile or the praise of the song, or a cause too subtle to name, that changed her. She had already seemed an indifferent woman, a great artist, a careless _Bohemienne_ in her speech; but for the next change he was unprepared: it was a pleading child with wistful eyes who seated herself beside him, not remotely through any self-consciousness, but near to him, where speech could be conveniently exchanged.
"Mr. Ravenel," she began, "I had thought to keep it from you, but you are different--the _most_ different person I ever saw." A dimple came in her cheek as she smiled. "And so I am going to tell you everything." She made a little outward gesture of the hands, as though casting discretion to the wind. "My father drinks. It began with his great sorrow. It is not all the time, but frequently. I had hoped that down here he would be better. He is not, and you will have to get another overseer. It is not just to you to have my father in charge. Only I think that perhaps such times as he is himself some work might be found for him. It is so peaceful here; I do not want to go away."
"You shall not go away."
The words were spoken quietly, but for the first time in her life Katrine Dulany felt there was some one of great power to whom she could turn for help, and her woman heart thrilled at the words.
"You mustn"t feel about it as you do, either," Frank continued. "The time has gone by for thinking of your father"s trouble as anything except a disease--a disease which very frequently can be cured."
"Ah!" she cried, "do you think it would be possible?"
"I have known many cases. Is your father good to you?" he asked, abruptly.
"Sick or well, with money or without, he is the kindest father in the world. Save in one way, it is always _for_ me he thinks."
Her hand lay on the log. It was small and white, and she was very beautiful. Frank had seldom resisted temptation. This one he did not even try to resist, and he placed his hand over hers.
"Katrine," he said, "I am not a particularly good man, but the G.o.ds have willed that we meet--meet in strange moods and a strange way. I am a better man to-night than I have ever been in my life. It"s the music, maybe, or the fringed gentian, or the whippoorwills." There was love-making in every tone of his voice. "Whatever it is, it makes me want to help you. May I? Will you trust me?"
She turned her hand upward, as a child might have done, to clasp his, looking him full in the eyes as she did so.
"Utterly," she said.
"I have not always been considered trustworthy," he explained, lightly.
"People may not have understood you." There was a sweet explaining in her voice.
"Which may have been, on the whole, fortunate for me," he answered, with a curious smile.
"Don"t," she said--"don"t talk of yourself like that. I know you are good, good, _good!_"
"Thank you," and again there came to him the throb in the throat he had felt when their eyes first met. "Believe me," he said, "I shall always try to be--to you," and as he spoke he raised her hand to his lips and kissed it.
A noise startled him. Some one was approaching with uncertain footsteps and a shuffling gait, and at the sound the girl"s face turned crimson.
"Katrine, little Katrine, where are you?" a voice cried, thickly and uncertainly, as a man came from under the gloom of the trees. There was not a moment"s hesitation. The child rose and put her arms around the figure with a divine, womanly gesture, as though to shield him and his infirmities from the whole world. It was the action of one ashamed to be ashamed.
"Daddy," she said, laying her head against his shoulder, "this is Mr.
Ravenel!"