"Make your room bright with these. When one is ill nothing is so cheering as the sight of flowers."
Meantime the others had descended and gone their separate ways.
As Karl crossed the courtyard a little child ran to meet him with outstretched arms and a shout of satisfaction. He caught it up and carried it away on his shoulder, like one used to caress and be caressed by children.
Helen, waiting at the door of the tower while the major dusted his coat, saw this, and said, suddenly, directing his attention to man and child,--
"He seems fond of little people. I wonder if he has any of his own."
"Hoffman? No, my dear; he"s not married; I asked him that when I engaged him."
"And he said he was not?"
"Yes; he"s not more than five or six-and-twenty, and fond of a wandering life, so what should he want of a wife and a flock of bantlings?"
"He seems sad and sober sometimes, and I fancied he might have some domestic trouble to hara.s.s him. Don"t you think there is something peculiar about him?" asked Helen, remembering Hoffman"s hint that her uncle knew his wish to travel incognito, and wondering if he would throw any light upon the matter. But the major"s face was impenetrable and his answer unsatisfactory.
"Well, I don"t know. Every one has some worry or other, and as for being peculiar, all foreigners seem more or less so to us, they are so unreserved and demonstrative. I like Hoffman more and more every day, and shall be sorry when I part with him."
"Ludmilla is his sister, then, or he didn"t tell uncle the truth. It is no concern of mine; but I wish I knew," thought Helen anxiously, and then wondered why she should care.
A feeling of distrust had taken possession of her and she determined to be on the watch, for the unsuspicious major would be easily duped, and Helen trusted more to her own quick and keen eye than to his experience. She tried to show nothing of the change in her manner: but Hoffman perceived it, and bore it with a proud patience which often touched her heart, but never altered her purpose.
VII
AT FAULT
Four weeks went by so rapidly that every one refused to believe it when the major stated the fact at the breakfast-table, for all had enjoyed themselves so heartily that they had been unconscious of the lapse of time.
"You are not going away, uncle?" cried Amy, with a panic-stricken look.
"Next week, my dear; we must be off, for we"ve much to do yet, and I promised mamma to bring you back by the end of October."
"Never mind Paris and the rest of it; this is pleasanter. I"d rather stay here--"
There Amy checked herself and tried to hide her face behind her coffee-cup, for Casimer looked up in a way that made her heart flutter and her cheeks burn.
"Sorry for it, Amy; but go we must, so enjoy your last week with all your might, and come again next year."
"It will never be again what it is now," sighed Amy; and Casimer echoed the words "next year," as if sadly wondering if the present year would not be his last.
Helen rose silently and went into the garden, for of late she had fallen into the way of reading and working in the little pavilion which stood in an angle of the wall, overlooking lake and mountains.
A seat at the opposite end of the walk was Amy"s haunt, for she liked the sun, and within a week or two something like constraint had existed between the cousins. Each seemed happier apart, and each was intent on her own affairs. Helen watched over Amy"s health, but no longer offered advice or asked confidence. She often looked anxious, and once or twice urged the major to go, as if conscious of some danger.
But the worthy man seemed to have been bewitched as well as the young folks, and was quite happy sitting by the plump, placid widow, or leisurely walking with her to the chapel on the hillside.
All seemed waiting for something to break up the party, and no one had the courage to do it. The major"s decision took every one by surprise, and Amy and Casimer looked as if they had fallen from the clouds.
The persistency with which the English lessons had gone on was amazing, for Amy usually tired of everything in a day or two. Now, however, she was a devoted teacher, and her pupil did her great credit by the rapidity with which he caught the language. It looked like pleasant play, sitting among the roses day after day, Amy affecting to embroider while she taught, Casimer marching to and fro on the wide, low wall, below which lay the lake, while he learned his lesson; then standing before her to recite, or lounging on the turf in frequent fits of idleness, both talking and laughing a great deal, and generally forgetting everything but the pleasure of being together.
They wrote little notes as exercises--Amy in French, Casimer in English, and each corrected the other"s.
All very well for a time; but as the notes increased the corrections decreased, and at last nothing was said of ungrammatical French or comical English and the little notes were exchanged in silence.
As Amy took her place that day she looked forlorn, and when her pupil came her only welcome was a reproachful--
"You are very late, sir."
"It is fifteen of minutes yet to ten clocks," was Casimer"s reply, in his best English.
"Ten o"clock, and leave out "of" before minutes. How many times must I tell you that?" said Amy, severely, to cover her first mistake.
"Ah, not many times; soon all goes to finish, and I have none person to make this charming English go in my so stupide head."
"What will you do then?"
"I _jeter_ myself into the lake."
"Don"t be foolish; I"m dull to-day, and want to be cheered up; suicide isn"t a pleasant subject."
"Good! See here, then--a little _plaisanterie_--what you call joke.
Can you will to see it?" and he laid a little pink c.o.c.ked-hat note on her lap, looking like a mischievous boy as he did so.
""Mon Casimer Teblinski;" I see no joke;" and Amy was about to tear it up, when he caught it from destruction, and holding it out of reach, said, laughing wickedly,--
"The "mon" is one abbreviation of "monsieur," but you put no little--how do you say?--period at the end of him; it goes now in English--_My_ Casimer Teblinski," and that is of the most charming address."
Amy colored, but had her return shot ready.
"Don"t exult; that was only an oversight, not a deliberate deception like that you put upon me. It was very wrong and rude, and I shall not forgive it."
"_Mon Dieu_! where have I gone in sinning! I am a _polisson_, as I say each day, but not a villain, I swear to you. Say to me that which I have made of wrong, and I will do penance."
"You told me "_Ma drogha_" was the Polish for "My pupil," and let me call you so a long time; I am wiser now," replied Amy, with great dignity.
"Who has said stupidities to you, that you doubt me?" and Casimer a.s.sumed an injured look, though his eyes danced with merriment.
"I heard Hoffman singing a Polish song to little Roserl, the burden of which was, "_Ma drogha, Ma drogha_," and when I asked him to translate it, those two words meant, "My darling." How dare you, ungrateful creature that you are!"
As Amy spoke, half-confusedly, half-angrily, Casimer went down upon his knees, with folded hands and penitent face, exclaiming, in good English,--
"Be merciful to me a sinner. I was tempted, and I could not resist."
"Get up this instant, and stop laughing. Say your lesson, for this will be your last," was the stern reply, though Amy"s face dimpled all over with suppressed merriment.
He rose meekly, but made such sad work with the verb "To love," that his teacher was glad to put an end to it, by proposing to read her French to him. It was "Thaddeus of Warsaw," a musty little translation which she had found in the house, and begun for her own amus.e.m.e.nt.
Casimer read a little, seemed interested, and suggested that they read it together, so that he might correct her accent. Amy agreed, and they were in the heart of the sentimental romance, finding it more interesting than most modern readers, for the girl had an improved Thaddeus before her, and the Pole a fairer, kinder Mary Beaufort.