Before the words left his lips, Richard Storms received a blow that sent him with his face upward across the forest path; and William Jessup was walking with great strides toward his own cottage.
It was seldom that Jessup gave way to such pa.s.sion as had overcome him now, and he had not walked a dozen paces before he regretted it with considerable self-upbraiding.
"The lad is jealous of every one that looks at my la.s.s, and speaks out of range because she is a bit offish with him. Poor darling, she has no mother; and the thought of marrying frightens her. It troubles me, too. Sometimes I feel a spite toward the lad, for wanting to take her from me. It makes me restless to think of it. I wonder if any living man ever gave up his daughter to a sweetheart without a grip of pain at the heart? I think it wasn"t so much the mad things he said that made my fist so unmanageable, for that come of too much drink, of course; but since he has begun to press this matter, I"m getting heartsore about losing the girl."
With these thoughts in his mind, Jessup came within sight of his own home, and paused in front of it.
How cool and pleasant it looked in the moonlight, with the shadowy vines flickering over it, and a golden light from the kitchen window brightening the dew upon them into crystal drops! The very tranquillity soothed the disturbed man before he entered the porch.
"I wonder if it"ll ever be the same again when she is gone," he said, speaking his thoughts aloud, and drawing the hand that had struck down young Storms across his eyes. "No, no; I must not expect that."
CHAPTER XIX.
FATHER AND DAUGHTER.
Ruth did not come forth to receive her father. This was strange, for a trip to London, with these simple people, was a great event, and it seemed to Jessup as if he had been gone a year.
When he entered the kitchen, Ruth was busy at the table moving the dishes with unsteady hands; but when he spoke, she came forward with breathless eagerness, and made herself very busy taking off his dusty things, which she shook, and folded with wonderful care.
Spite of his utter disbelief in the coa.r.s.e accusations made by Storms in the park, Jessup watched his daughter anxiously. It seemed to him that she looked paler than usual, and that all her movements were suspiciously restless. Besides this, he observed, with a sinking heart, that her eyes never once met his with their own frank smile.
Could it be that there was some shadow of truth in what Storms had said? He would not believe it.
"Come, father, the posset is ready. I have been keeping it warm."
Ruth stood on the hearth then, with the antique silver posset-cup, which had been his grandmother"s, in her hand. The firelight was full upon her, concealing the pallor of her face with its golden flicker.
Surely there could be nothing wrong under that sweet look.
The gardener gave a great sigh of relief as he accepted this thought, and his anger toward d.i.c.k Storms grew deep and bitter.
"Come, la.s.s," he said, with more than usual affection, "sit down here by my side. The posset is rare and good; while I eat it, you shall tell me of all that has been done since I went away."
All that had been done since he went away! Would Ruth ever dare to tell her father that? The very thought sent up a rush of blood to her face.
"Oh, father! there is little to be done when you are away. I did not even care to cook my own supper."
"Ah! well, take it now, child," said the good man, pouring half his warm posset into an old china bowl, and pushing it toward her.
"No, no, father, I am not hungry. I think the cooking of food takes away one"s appet.i.te."
"Nay, eat. It is lonesome work, with no one to help me," said the father, who certainly had no cause to complain of his own appet.i.te.
Ruth stirred the posset languidly with her spoon, and strove to swallow a little; but the effort almost choked her. It might be fancy; but she could not help thinking that her father was furtively regarding her all the time, and the idea filled her with dismay.
Something of the same feeling possessed her father. Inherent kindness made him peculiarly sensitive, and he did not know how to question his daughter of the things that disturbed him, without wounding her and himself too.
In this perplexity, he ate with that ravenous haste which sometimes springs from an unconsciousness of what we are doing when under the pressure of great mental excitement. He was astonished when his spoon sc.r.a.ped on the bottom of that silver posset-cup. He sat for a moment embarra.s.sed and uncertain how to begin. Where the feelings of his daughter were concerned, Jessup was a coward; to him she had been, from her very babyhood, a creature to worship and care for with a sort of tender reverence. So, with cowardice born of too much love, he thought to cheat himself, and bade her bring the little carpet-bag that had been his companion to London, and which he had dropped near the door.
Ruth, glad of anything that promised to distract her mind from its anxieties, brought the bag, and stood over her father while he unlocked it.
"See, child," he said, taking out a parcel done up in filmy paper, "I have brought some fill-falls from London, thinking my la.s.s would be glad of them. Look, now!"
Here Jessup unrolled a ribbon, which streamed half across the room, as he shook out its scarlet waves.
"Isn"t that something like, now?"
"Oh, it is beautiful!" cried the girl, with true feminine delight. "My dear, dear father!"
"I remembered--but no matter about that. My little Ruth is like a rose, and must have color like one. See what I have brought to go with the ribbon."
"White muslin," cried Ruth, in an ecstasy of delight. "Fine enough for the Lady Rose. How beautifully the scarlet sash will loop it up! Oh, father, who told you how well these things would go together?"
"I guessed it one day when the Lady Rose came here with a lot of stuff like that, puffed and looped with a ribbon bright as the field-poppies about her. You didn"t know then, my la.s.s, that your father felt like crying too, when he saw tears in his child"s eyes, because she craved a fine dress and bonny colors for herself, and never thought to get it. There, now, you must get the best seamstress in the village to make it."
"No, no! I will make it with my own hands. Oh, father! father! how good, how kind you are!"
Dropping the sash and the muslin from her hold, Ruth threw her arms around Jessup"s neck, and, bursting into tears, laid her head upon his shoulder.
"So, so! That will never do," cried the kind-hearted man, smoothing the girl"s hair with his great hand, tenderly, as if he were afraid his very fondness might hurt her. "If you cry so, I shall turn the key, and lock all the other things up."
Ruth lifted her sweet face, all bedewed with penitent tears, and laid it close to the weather-beaten cheek of the man.
"Oh, father! don"t be so good to me! It breaks my heart!"
Jessup took her face between his hands, and kissed it on the forehead, then pushed her pleasantly on one side, and thrust his hand into the bag again. This time it was drawn forth with a pretty pair of high-heeled boots, all st.i.tched with silk, and circled about the ankles with a wreath of exquisite embroidery.
"There, now, we will leave the rest till to-morrow," he said, closing the box with a mysterious look. "Only say that you are pleased with these."
"Pleased! Oh, father, it is the dress of a lady!"
"Well, even so. One day my Ruth may be next door to that," said Jessup, putting forth all his affectionate craft. "Farmer Storms is a warm man, and d.i.c.k is his only son. It is the lad"s own right if he sometimes brings his gun and shoots our game--his father has an interest in it, you know. The master has no right over his farm, and birds swarm there."
Jessup stopped suddenly, for Ruth stood before him white and still as marble, the ribbon which she had taken from the floor streaming from her hand in vivid contrast with the swift pallor that had settled upon her.
"La.s.s! Ruth, I say! What has come over you?" cried out the gardener, in alarm. "What have I done to make you turn so white all in a minute?"
"Done! Nothing, father--nothing!" gasped the girl.
"But you are ill!"
"Yes, a little; but nothing to--to trouble you so."
Ruth stood a moment after this, with one hand on her temple, then she turned, with a show of strength, to her father.
"What were you saying just now about farmer Storms, and--and his son?
I don"t think I quite understood, did I?"