At the boathouse Davy launched the small sailboat and Nora took the tiller. She knew every inch of the harbour. As the sail filled before the wind and the boat sprang across the upcurling waves, her brief sullenness fell away from her. She no longer resented Clark Bryant"s presence--she forgot it. He was no more to her than the mast by which he stood. The spell of the sea and the wind surged into her heart and filled it with wild happiness and measureless content. Over yonder, where the lights gleamed on the darkening sh.o.r.e under the high-sprung arch of pale golden sky, was home. How the wind whistled to welcome her back! The lash of it against her face--the flick of salt spray on her lips--the swing of the boat as it cut through the racing crests--how glorious it all was!
Clark Bryant watched her, understanding all at once that he was nothing to her, that he had no part or lot in her heart. He was as one forgotten and left behind. And how lovely, how desirable she was! He had never seen her look so beautiful. The shawl had slipped down to her shoulders and her head rose out of it like some magnificent flower out of a crimson calyx. The ma.s.ses of her black hair lifted from her face in the rush of the wind and swayed back again like rich shadows.
Her lips were stung scarlet with the sea"s sharp caresses, and her eyes, large and splendid, looked past him unseeing to the harbour lights of Racicot.
When they swung in by the wharf Nora sprang from the boat before Bryant had time to moor it. Pausing for an instant, she called down to him, carelessly, "Don"t wait for me. I shall not go back tonight."
Then she caught her shawl around her head and almost ran up the wharf and along the sh.o.r.e. No one was abroad, for it was supper hour in Racicot. In the Sh.e.l.ley kitchen the family was gathered around the table, when the door was flung open and Nora stood on the threshold.
For a moment they gazed at her as at an apparition. They had not known the precise day of her coming and were not aware of the Camerons"
arrival at Dalveigh.
"It"s the girl herself. It"s Nora," said old Nathan, rising from his bench.
"Mother!" cried Nora. She ran across the room and buried her face in her mother"s breast, sobbing.
When the news spread, the Racicot people crowded in to see Nora until the house was full. They spent a noisy, merry, whole-hearted evening of the old sort. The men smoked and most of the women knitted while they talked. They were pleased to find that Nora did not put on any airs. Old Jonas Myers bluntly told her that he didn"t see as her year among rich folks had done her much good, after all.
"You"re just the same as when you went away," he said. "They haven"t made a fine lady of you. Folks here thought you"d be something wonderful."
Nora laughed. She was glad that they did not find her changed. Old Nathan chuckled in his dry way. There was a difference in the girl, and he saw it, though the neighbours did not, but it was not the difference he had feared. His daughter was not utterly taken from him yet.
Nora sat by her mother and was happy. But as the evening wore away she grew very quiet, and watched the door with something piteous in her eyes. Old Nathan noticed it and thought she was tired. He gave the curious neighbours a good-natured hint, and they presently withdrew.
When they had all gone Nora went out to the door alone.
The wind had died down and the sh.o.r.e, gemmed with its twinkling lights, was very still, for it was too late an hour for Racicot folk to be abroad in the mackerel season. The moon was rising and the harbour was a tossing expanse of silver waves. The mellow light fell on a tall figure lurking at the angle of the road that led past the Sh.e.l.ley cottage. Nora saw and recognized it. She flew down the sandy slope with outstretched hands.
"Rob--Rob!"
"Nora!" he said huskily, holding out his hand. But she flung herself on his breast and clung to him, half laughing, half crying.
"Oh, Rob! I"ve been looking for you all the evening. Every time there was a step I said to myself, "That is Rob, now." And when the door opened to let in another, my heart died within me. I dared not even ask after you for fear of what they might tell me. Why didn"t you come?"
"I didn"t know that I"d be welcome," he whispered, holding her closer to him. "I"ve been hanging about thinking to get a glimpse of you unbeknown. I thought maybe you wouldn"t want to see me tonight."
"Not want to see you! Oh, Rob, this evening at Dalveigh, when I looked across to Racicot, it was you I thought of before all--even before Mother."
She drew back and looked at him with her soul in her eyes.
"What a splendid fellow you are--how handsome you are, Rob!" she cried. All the reserve of womanhood fell away from her in the inrush of emotions. For the moment she was a child again, telling out her thoughts with all a child"s frankness. "I"ve been in a dream this past year--a lovely dream--a fair dream, but only a dream, after all. And now I"ve wakened. And you are part of the wakening--the best part! Oh, to think I never knew before!"
"Knew what, my girl?"
He had her close against his heart now; the breath of her lips mingled with his, but he would not kiss her yet.
"That I loved you," she whispered back. "Oh, Rob, you are all the world to me. I belong to you and the sea. But I never knew it until I crossed the harbour tonight. Then I knew--it came to me all at once, like a flood of understanding. I knew I could never go away again--that I must stay here forever where I could hear that call of wind and waves. The new life was good--good--but it could not go deep enough. And when you did not come I knew what was in my heart for you as well."
That night Nora lay beside her sisters in the tiny room that looked out on the harbour. The younger girls slept soundly, but Nora kept awake to listen to the laughter of the wind outside, and con over what she and Rob had said to each other. There was no blot on her happiness save a sorry wonder what the Camerons would say when they knew.
"They will think me ungrateful and fickle," she sighed. "They don"t know that I can"t help it even if I would. They will never understand."
Nor did they. When Nora told them that she was going back to Racicot, they laughed at her kindly at first, treating it as the pa.s.sing whim of a homesick girl. Later, when they came to understand that she meant it, they were grieved and angry. There were scenes of pleading and tears and reproaches. Nora cried bitterly in Mrs. Cameron"s arms, but stood rock-firm. She could never go back to them--never.
They appealed to Nathan Sh.e.l.ley finally, but he refused to say anything.
"It can"t be altered," he told them. "The sea has called her and she"ll listen to naught else. I"m sorry enough for the girl"s own sake. It would have been better for her if she could have cut loose from it all and lived your life, I dare say. But you"ve made a fair trial and it"s of no use. I know what"s in her heart--it was in mine once--and I"ll say no word of rebuke to her. She"s free to go or stay as she chooses--just as free as she was last year."
Mrs. Cameron made one more appeal to Nora. She told the girl bitterly that she was ungrateful.
"I"m not that," said Nora with quivering lips. "I love you, and I"m grateful to you. But your life isn"t for me, after all. I thought it was--I longed so for it. And I loved it, too--I love it yet. But there"s something stronger in me that holds me here."
"I don"t think you realize what you are doing, Nora. You have been a little homesick and you are glad to be back. But after we have gone and you must settle into the old Racicot life again, you will not be contented. You will find that your life with us will have unfitted you for this. There will be no real place for you here--nothing for you to do. You will be as a stranger here."
"Oh, no. I am going to marry Rob Fletcher," said Nora proudly.
"Marry Rob Fletcher! And you might have married Clark Bryant, Nora!"
Nora shook her head. "That could never have been. I thought it might once--but I know better now. You see, I love Rob."
There did not seem to be anything more to say after that. Mrs. Cameron did not try to say anything. She went away in sorrow.
Nora cried bitterly after she had gone. But there were no tears in her eyes that night when she walked on the sh.o.r.e with Rob Fletcher. The wind whistled around them, and the stars came out in the great ebony dome of the sky over the harbour. Laughter and song of the fishing folk were behind them, and the deep, solemn call of the sea before.
Over the harbour gleamed the score of lights at Dalveigh. Rob looked from them to Nora.
"Do you think you"ll ever regret yon life, my girl?"
"Never, Rob. It seems to me now like a beautiful garment put on for a holiday and worn easily and pleasantly for a time. But I"ve put it off now, and put on workaday clothes again. It is only a week since I left Dalveigh, but it seems long ago. Listen to the wind, Rob! It is singing of the good days to be for you and me."
He bent over and kissed her.
"My own dear la.s.s!" he said softly.
The Martyrdom of Estella
Estella was waiting under the poplars at the gate for Spencer Morgan.
She was engaged to him, and he always came to see her on Sat.u.r.day and Wednesday evenings. It was after sunset, and the air was mellow and warm-hued. The willow trees along the walk and the tall birches in the background stood out darkly distinct against the lemon-tinted sky. The breath of mint floated out from the garden, and the dew was falling heavily.
Estella leaned against the gate, listening for the sound of wheels and dreamily watching the light shining out from the window of Vivienne LeMar"s room. The blind was up and she could see Miss LeMar writing at her table. Her profile was clear and distinct against the lamplight.
Estella reflected without the least envy that Miss LeMar was very beautiful. She had never seen anyone who was really beautiful before--beautiful with the loveliness of the heroines in the novels she sometimes read or the pictures she had seen.
Estella Bowes was not pretty. She was a nice-looking girl, with clear eyes, rosy cheeks, and a pervading air of the content and happiness her life had always known. She was an orphan and lived with her uncle and aunt. In the summer they sometimes took a boarder for a month or two, and this summer Miss LeMar had come. She had been with them about a week. She was an actress from the city and had around her all the glamour of a strange, unknown life. Nothing was known about her. The Boweses liked her well enough as a boarder. Estella admired and held her in awe. She wondered what Spencer would think of this beautiful woman. He had not yet seen her.
It was quite dark when he came. Estella opened the gate for him, but he got out of his buggy and walked up the lane beside her with his arm about her. Miss LeMar"s light had removed to the parlour where she was singing, accompanying herself on the cottage organ. Estella felt annoyed. The parlour was considered her private domain on Wednesday and Sat.u.r.day night, but Miss LeMar did not know that.