"Would you bite me?" murmurs she, fondly, as the bird flies off again alarmed at the presence of the tall stranger, who already is busy comparing most favorably the face of its mistress with the faces of all the fashionable beauties London has been raving about for eighteen months. "Every morning they torment me like this," she says, turning to Geoffrey, with a little pleasant confidential nod.
"He looked as if he wanted to eat you; and I"m sure I don"t wonder at it," says Geoffrey, making the addition to his speech in a lower key.
"And have you walked from Coolnagurtheen this morning? Why, it is eight miles from this," says she, taking no notice of his last speech. "You could have had no breakfast!"
"Not yet; but I suppose there must be a village near here, and an inn, and I want you to direct me how to get to it. I am giving you a great deal of trouble," remorsefully, "but my boy knows nothing."
He points as he speaks to the ignorant Paddy, who is sitting on the ground with his knees between his hands, crooning a melancholy ditty.
"The village is two miles farther on. I think you had better come in and breakfast here. Uncle will be very glad to see you," she says, hospitably. "And you must be tired."
He hesitates. He _is_ tired, and hungry too; there is no denying. Even as he hesitates, a girl coming out to the door-step puts her hand over her eyes, and shouts pleasantly from afar to her mistress,--
"Miss Mona, come in; the tay will be cold, an" the rashers all spoiled, an" the masther"s callin" for ye."
"Come, hurry," says Mona, turning to Geoffrey, with a light laugh that seems to spring from her very heart. "Would you have the "tay" get cold while you are making up your mind? I at least must go."
She moves from him.
"Then thank you, and I shall go with you, if you will allow me," says Geoffrey, hurriedly, as he sees her disappearing.
"Tell your boy to go to the kitchen," says Mona, thoughtfully, and, Paddy being disposed of, she and Geoffrey go on to the house.
They walk up a little gravelled path, on either side of which trim beds of flowers are cut, bordered with stiff box. All sorts of pretty, sweetly-smelling old wild blossoms are blooming in them, as gayly as though they have forgotten the fact that autumn is rejoicing in all its matured beauty. Crimson and white and purple asters stand calmly gazing towards the sky; here a flaming fuchsia droops its head, and there, apart from all the rest, smiles an enchanting rose.
"That like a virgin queen salutes the sun Dew-diadem"d."
Behind the house rises a thick wood,--a "solemn wood," such as d.i.c.kens loved to write of, with its lights and shades and every-varying tints. A gentle wind is rushing through it now; the faint murmur of some "hidden brook," singing its "quiet tune," fall upon the ear; some happy birds are warbling in the thickets. It is a day whose beauty may be felt.
"I have no card but my name is Geoffrey Rodney," says the young man, turning to his companion.
"And mine is Mona Scully," returns she, with the smile that seems part of her lips, and which already has engraven itself on Mr. Rodney"s heart. "Now, I suppose, we know each other."
They walk up two steps, and enter a small hall, and then he follows her into a room opening off it, in which breakfast lies prepared.
It is in Geoffrey"s eyes a very curious room, unlike anything he has ever seen before; yet it possesses for him (perhaps for that very reason) a certain charm. It is uncarpeted, but the boards are white as snow, and on them lies a fine sprinkling of dry sand. In one of the windows--whose panes are diamond-shaped--two geraniums are in full flower; upon the deep seat belonging to the other lie some books and a stocking half knitted.
An old man, rugged but kindly-featured, rises on his entrance, and gazes at him expectantly. Mona, going up to him, rests her hand upon his arm, and, indicating Geoffrey by a gesture, says, in a low tone,--
"He has lost his way. He is tired, and I have asked him to have some breakfast. He is the English gentleman who is living at Coolnagurtheen."
"You"re kindly welcome, sir," says the old man, bowing with the slow and heavy movement that belongs to the aged. There is dignity and warmth, however, in the salute, and Geoffrey accepts with pleasure the toil-worn hand his host presents to him a moment later. The breakfast is good, and, though composed of only country fare, is delicious to the young man, who has been walking since dawn, and whose appet.i.te just now would have astonished those dwelling in crowded towns and living only on their excitements.
The house, is home-like, sweet, and one which might perhaps day by day grow dearer to the heart; and this girl, this pretty creature who every now and then turns her eyes on Geoffrey, as though glad in a kindly fashion to see him there, seems a necessary part of the whole,--her gracious presence rendering it each moment sweeter and more desirable.
"My precept to all who build is," says Cicero, "that the owner should be an ornament to the house, and not the house to the owner."
Mona pours out the tea--which is excellent--and puts in the cream--which is a thing to dream of--with a liberal hand. She smiles at Geoffrey across the sugar-bowl, and chatters to him over the big bowl of flowers that lies in the centre of the table. Not a hothouse bouquet faultlessly arranged, by any means, but a great, tender, happy, straggling bunch of flowers that seem to have fallen into their places of their own accord, regardless of coloring, and fill the room with their perfume.
His host going to the window when breakfast is at an end, Geoffrey follows him; and both look out upon the little garden before them that is so carefully and lovingly tended.
"It is all her doing," says the old man,--"Mona"s, I mean. She loves those flowers more than anything on earth, I think. Her mother was the same; but she wasn"t half the la.s.s that Mona is. Never a mornin" in the cowld winter but she goes out there to see if the frost hasn"t killed some of "em the night before."
"There is hardly any taste so charming or so engrossing as that for flowers," says Geoffrey, making this trite little speech, that sounds like a copy-book, in his most engaging style. "My mother and cousin do a great deal of that sort of thing when at home."
"Ay, it looks pretty and gives the child something to do." There is a regretful ring in his tone that induces Geoffrey to ask the next question.
"Does she--does Miss Scully find country life unsatisfying? Has she not lived here always?"
"Law, no, sir," says the old man, with a loud and hearty laugh. "I think if ye could see the counthry girls round here, an" compare "em with my Mona, you"d see that for yerself. She"s as fine as the queen to them.
Her mother, you see, was the parson"s daughter down here; tiptop she was, and purty as a fairy, but mighty delicate; looked as if a march wind would blow her into heaven. Dan--he was a brother of mine, an" a solicitor in Dublin. You"ve been there, belike?"
"Yes; I stopped there for two or three days on my way down here.
Well--and--your brother?" He cannot to himself explain the interest he feels in this story.
"Dan? He was a fine man, surely; six feet in his stockin", he was, an"
eyes like a woman"s. He come down here an" met her, an" she married him.
Nothing would stop her, though the parson was fit to be tied about it.
An" of course he was no match for her,--father bein" only a bricklayer when he began life,--but still I will say Dan was a fine man, an" one to think about; an" no two ways in him, an" _that_ soft about the heart. He worshipped the ground she walked on; an" four years after their marriage she told me herself she never had an ache in her heart since she married him. That was fine tellin", sir, wasn"t it? Four years, mind ye. Why, when Mary was alive (my wife, sir) we had a shindy twice a week, reg"lar as clockwork. We wouldn"t have known ourselves without it; but, however, that"s nayther here nor there," says Mr. Scully, pulling himself up short. "An" I ask yer pardon, sir, for pushing private matters on ye like this."
"But you have interested me," says Geoffrey, seating himself on the broad sill of the window, as though preparing for a long dissertation on matters still unknown. "Pray tell me how your brother and his lovely wife--who evidently was as wise and true as she was lovely--got on."
Mr. Rodney"s face being of that rare kind that is as tender as it is manly, and by right of its beauty demands confidence, the old man (who dearly loves his own voice) is encouraged to proceed.
"They didn"t get on for long," he says, mournfully,--and what voice is so full of melancholy as the Irish voice when it sinks into sadness?
"When the little one--Mona--was barely five years old, they went to ground; Mount Jerome got them. Fever it was; and it carried "em both off just while ye"d have time to look round ye. Poor souls, they went to the blessed land together. Perhaps the Holy Virgin knew they would have got on badly without each other anywhere."
"And the child,--Miss Mona?" asks Geoffrey.
"She went to live in Anthrim with her mother"s sister. Later she got to Dublin, to her aunt there,--another of the parson"s daughters,--who married the Provost in Thrinity; a proud sort he was, an" awful tiresome with his Greeks an" his Romans, an" not the height of yer thumb," says Mr. Scully, with ineffable contempt. "I went to Dublin one day about cattle, and called to see me niece; an" she took to me, bless her, an"
I brought her down with me for change of air, for her cheeks were whiter than a fleece of wool, an" she has stayed ever since. Dear soul! I hope she"ll stay forever. She is welcome."
"She must be a great comfort to you," says Geoffrey from his heart.
"She is that. More than I can say. An" keeps things together, too. She is clever like her father, an" he was on the fair way to make a fortune.
Ay, I always say it, law is the thing that pays in Ireland. A good sound fight sets them up. But I"m keeping you, sir, and your gun is waitin"
for ye. If you haven"t had enough of me company by this," with another jolly laugh, "I"ll take ye down to a field hard by, an" show ye where I saw a fine young covey only yesternight."
"I--I should like to say good-by to Miss Mona, and thank her for all her goodness to me, before going," says the young man, rising somewhat slowly.
"Nay, you can say all that on your way back, an" get a half-shot into the bargain," says old Scully, heartily. "You"ll hardly beat the potheen I can give ye." He winks knowingly, pats Rodney kindly on the shoulder, and leads the way out of the house. Yet I think Geoffrey would willingly have bartered potheen, partridge, and a good deal more, for just one last glance at Mona"s beautiful face before parting. Cheered, however, by the prospect that he may see her before night falls, he follows the farmer into the open air.
CHAPTER III.
HOW GEOFFREY"S HEART IS CLAIMED BY CUPID AS A TARGET, AND HOW MONA STOOPS TO CONQUER.