"No. Who said he doesn"t love you? What was he there for? I stick to that."
"Now, nurse, dear, be reasonable; if Mr. Dodd loved me, would he go to sleep in my presence?"
"Eh! Miss Lucy, the poor soul was maybe asleep before you left your room."
"It is all the same. He slept while I stood close to him ever so long.
Slept while I--If I loved anybody as these gentlemen pretend they love us, should I sleep while the being I adored was close to me?"
"You are too hard upon him. "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak." Why, miss, we do read of Eutychus, how he snoozed off setting under Paul himself--up in a windy--and down a-tumbled. But parson says it wasn"t that he didn"t love religion, or why should Paul make it his business to bring him to life again, "stead of letting un lie for a warning to the sleepy-headed ones. ""Twas a wearied body, not a heart cold to G.o.d," says our parson."
"Now, nurse, I take you at your word. If Eutychus had been Eutycha, and in love with St. Paul, Eutycha would never have gone to sleep, though St. Paul preached all day and all night; and if Dorcas had preached instead of St. Paul, and Eutychus been in love with her, he would never have gone to sleep, and you know it."
At this home-thrust Mrs. Wilson was staggered, but the next moment her sense of discomfiture gave way to a broad expression of triumph at her nursling"s wit.
"Eh! Miss Lucy," cried she, showing a broadside of great white teeth in a rustic chuckle, "but ye"ve got a tongue in your head. Ye"ve sewed up my stocking, and "tisn"t many of them can do that." Lucy followed up her advantage.
"And, nurse, even when he was wide awake and stood by the cart, no inward sentiment warned him of my presence; a sure sign he did not love me. Though I have never experienced love, I have read of it, and know all about it." [_Jus-tice des Femmes!_]
"Well, Miss Lucy, have it your own way; after all, if he loves you he will find you out."
"Of course he would, and you will see he will do nothing of the kind."
"Then I wish I knew where he was; I would pull him in at my door by the scruf of the neck."
"And then I should jump out at the window. Come, try on your new cap, nurse, that I have made for you, and let us talk about anything you like except gentlemen. Gentlemen are a sore subject with me. Gentlemen have been my ruin."
"La, Miss Lucy!"
"I a.s.sure you they have; why, have they not set my uncle"s heart against me, and my aunt"s, and robbed me of the affection I once had for both? I believe gentlemen to be the pests of society; and oh! the delight of being here in this calm retreat, where love dwells, and no gentleman can find me. Ah! ah! Oh! What is that?"
For a heavy blow descended on the door. "That is Jenny"s _knock,"_ said Mrs. Wilson; dryly. "Come in, Jenny." The servant, thus invited, burst the door open as savagely as she had struck it, and announced with a knowing grin, "A GENTLEMAN--_for Miss Fountain!!"_
CHAPTER XXVII.
DAVID and Eve sat together at their little breakfast, and pressed each other to eat; but neither could eat. David"s night excursion had filled Eve with new misgivings. It was the act of a madman; and we know the fears that beset her on that head, and their ground. He had come home shivering, and she had forced him to keep his bed all that day. He was not well now, and bodily weakness, added to his other afflictions, bore his spirit down, though nothing could cow it.
"When are you to sail?" inquired Eve, sick-like.
"In three days. Cargo won"t be on board before."
"A coasting vessel?"
"A man can do his duty in a coaster as well as a merchantman or a frigate." But he sighed.
"Would to G.o.d you had never seen her!"
"Don"t blame her--blame me. I had good advice from my little sister, but I was willful. Never mind, Eve, I needn"t to blush for loving her; she is worthy of it all."
"Well, think so, David, if you can." And Eve, thoroughly depressed, relapsed into silence. The postman"s rap was heard, and soon after a long inclosure was placed in Eve"s hand.
Poor little Eve did not receive many letters; and, sad as she was, she opened this with some interest; but how shall I paint its effect? She kept uttering shrieks of joy, one after another, at each sentence. And when she had shrieked with joy many times, she ran with the large paper round to David. "You are captain of the _Rajah!_ ah! the new ship! ah! eleven hundred tons! Oh, David! Oh, my heart! Oh! oh!
oh!" and the poor little thing clasped her arms round her brother"s neck, and kissed him again and again, and cried and sobbed for joy.
All men, and most women, go through life without once knowing what it is to cry for joy, and it is a comfort to think that Eve"s pure and deep affection brought her such a moment as this in return for much trouble and sorrow. David, stout-hearted as he was, was shaken as the sea and the wind had never yet shaken him. He turned red and white alternately, and trembled. "Captain of the _Rajah!_ It is too good--it is too good! I have done nothing _for it";_ and he was incredulous.
Eve was devouring the inclosure. "It is her doing," she cried; "it is all her doing."
"Whose?"
"Who do you think? I am in the air! I am in heaven! Bless her--oh, G.o.d, bless her for this. Never speak against cold-blooded folk before me; they have twice the principle of us hot ones: I always said so.
She is a good creature; she is a true friend; and you accused her of ingrat.i.tude!"
"That I never did."
"You did--_Rajah_--he! he! oh!--and I defended her. Here, take and read that: is that a commission or not? Now you be quiet, and let us see what she says. No, I can"t; I cannot keep the tears out of my eyes. Do take and read it, David; I"m blind."
David took the letter, kissed it, and read it out to Eve, and she kept crowing and shedding tears all the time.
"DEAR MISS DODD--I admire too much your true affection for your brother to be indifferent to your good opinion. Think of me as leniently as you can. Perhaps it gives me as much pleasure to be able to forward you the inclosed as the receipt of it, I hope, may give you.
"It would, I think, be more wise, and certainly more generous, not to let Mr. Dodd think he owes in any degree to me that which, if the world were just, would surely have been his long ago. Only, some few months hence, when it can do him no harm, I could wish him not to think his friend Lucy was ungrateful, or even cold in his service, who saved her life, and once honored her with so warm an esteem. But all this I confide to your discretion and your justice. Dear Miss Dodd, those who give pain to others do not escape it themselves, nor is it just they should. My insensibility to the merit of persons of the other s.e.x has provoked my relatives; they have punished me for declining Mr. Dodd"s inferiors with a bitterness Mr. Dodd, with far more cause, never showed me; so you see at each turn I am reminded of his superiority.
"The result is, I am separated from my friends, and am living all alone with my dear old nurse, at her farmhouse.
"Since, then, I am unhappy, and you are generous, you will, I think, forgive me all the pain I have caused you, and will let me, in bidding you adieu, subscribe myself,
"Yours affectionately,
"LUCY FOUNTAIN"
"It is the letter of a sweet girl, David, with a n.o.ble heart; and she has taken a n.o.ble revenge of me for what I said to her the other day, and made her cry, like a little brute as I am. Why, how glum you look!"
"Eve," said David, "do you think I will accept this from her without herself?"
"Of course you will. Don"t be too greedy, David. Leave the girl in peace; she has shown you what she will do and what she won"t. One such friend as this is worth a hundred lovers. Give me her dear little note."
While Eve was persuing it, David went out, but soon returned, with his best coat on, and his hat in his hand. Eve asked in some surprise where he was going in such a hurry.
"To her."
"Well, David, now I come to read her letter quietly, it is a woman"s letter all over; you may read it which way you like. What need had she to tell me she has just refused offers? And then she tells me she is all alone. That sounds like a hint. The company of a friend might he agreeable. Brush your coat first, at any rate; there"s something white on it; it is a paper; it is pinned on. Come here. Why, what is this?
It is written on. "Adieu."" And Eve opened her eyes and mouth as well.
She asked him when he wore the coat last.