Notwithstanding her disdainful words, Judith was greatly disturbed.
The color had faded even from her lips. Her young life knew its keenest pang when jealousy, with one swift leap, took possession of her heart and soul and tortured them. But the girl was fiery and brave even in her anguish. She would not yield to it in the presence of her visitor, who might watch and report.
"They tell you that my father does not know when Mr. Storms comes here. That, you will find, is false as the rest. He is coming home with father this afternoon. I thought it was them when you came in.
Look, I have just set out the table. Wait a while, and you will see them coming down the lane together."
Judith flung open the parlor-door as she spoke, and Mrs. Parsons went in. Never had that room taken such an air of neatness within the good woman"s memory. The table-cloth was spotless; the china unmatched, but brightly clean; the uncarpeted floor had been scoured and the cobwebs were all swept away. The open fireplace was crowded with leaves and coa.r.s.e garden flowers.
"Well, I"m glad that I can say that much, anyway," said the good woman, looking around with no little admiration. "What a nack you have got, Judith! Just to think that a few branches from the hedge can do all that! I"ll go right home and tell my girls about it."
"Not yet--not till you have seen father and Mr. Storms come in to tea, as they are sure to do before long. The neighbors are so anxious to know about it that I want them to have it from good authority."
Judith had not recovered from her first exasperation, and spoke defiantly, not at all restrained by a latent fear that her father might come alone.
Mrs. Parsons had made her way to a window, where the wren she had taken so much interest in was twittering joyously among the vine-leaves.
The great anxiety that possessed Judith drew her to the window also, where she stood trembling with dread and burning with wrath. She had been informed before that damaging rumors were abroad with regard to Storms" stolen visits, and it was agreed upon between her and the young man that he should in some natural way seek out old Mr. Hart, and thus obtain a legitimate right to visit the house.
The expectation of his coming that very afternoon had induced Judith to brighten up her dreary old home with so much care, and would make her triumph only the greater if Mrs. Parsons was present to witness his approach.
"Yes," she said, "it is father and Mr. Storms I am expecting to tea.
You can see with your own eyes what friends they are."
Mrs. Parsons was not so deficient in curiosity that she did not look eagerly through the vine-leaves, even holding them apart with her own hands to obtain a good view. She saw two persons coming down the lane, as opposite in appearance as creatures of the same race could be.
Young Storms walked vigorously, swinging his cane in one hand or dashing off the head of a thistle with it whenever those stately wild-flowers tempted him with their imperial purple.
To the old man who came toiling after him this reckless destruction seemed a cruel enjoyment. His gentle nature shrunk from every blow, as if the poor flowers could feel and suffer under those cruel lacerations. He could not have been induced to break the smallest blossom from its roots in that ruthless fashion, but tore up unseemly weeds in the garden gently and with a sort of compa.s.sion, for the tenderness of his nature reached the smallest thing that G.o.d has made.
A slight man loaded down with hard work, stooping in the shoulders, walking painfully beyond his usual speed, Hart appeared as he struggled to keep up with young Storms, who knew that he was weary and too old for the toil that had worn him out, but never once offered to check his own steps or wait for him to take breath.
"Yes, it is father and Mr. Storms. You can tell the neighbors that; and tell them from me that he"ll come again, just as long as he wants to, and we want to have him," said Judith, triumphantly.
"I"ll tell the neighbors what I have seen, and nothing more," answered the woman. "There"s not one of them that wishes you any harm."
"Oh, no, of course not!" was the mocking answer.
The woman shook her head, half sorrowful, half in anger.
"Well, Judith, I won"t say another word, now I see that your father knows; but it is to be hoped he has found out something better about the young man than any of us has heard of yet."
Mrs. Parsons tied her bonnet as she spoke, and casting a wistful look on the table, hesitated, as if waiting for an invitation to remain.
But Judith was too much excited for any thought of such hospitality; so the woman went away more angry than she had ever been with that motherless girl before.
The moment she was gone Judith took her bowl of blackberries, emptied them into the gla.s.s dish, heaping them unevenly on one side to conceal a crack in the gla.s.s, then ran into the hall, for she heard footsteps on the porch, and her father"s voice inviting some one to walk in.
CHAPTER X.
JEALOUS Pa.s.sIONS.
"Walk in, Mr. Storms. Judith will be somewhere about. Oh, here she is!"
Yes, there she was, lighting up the bare hall with the rosy glow of her smiles, which, sullen as she strove to make them, beamed upon the visitor quite warmly enough to satisfy his insatiate vanity.
"Daughter, this is Mr. Storms, a young gentleman from the neighborhood of "Norston"s Rest," come up the valley on business. He was kind enough to walk along the hill with me after I got through work, and when I told him of the view, he wanted to see it from the house."
Neither of the young people gave the slightest sign that they had met before. Judith"s smile turned to an inward laugh as she made a dashing courtesy, and gave the young man her hand the moment her father"s back was turned.
Storms might have kissed the hand, while the old man was hanging up his hat, but was far too prudent for anything of the kind, though he saw a resentful cloud gathering on the girl"s face.
The old man gave a quiet signal to Judith that she should stop a moment for consultation, while their visitor went out of the back-door, as if tempted by a glimpse of the scenery in that direction.
"I couldn"t help asking him in, daughter, so you must make the best of it. Is there anything in the house--anything for tea, I mean? No b.u.t.ter, I suppose?"
"Yes, there is; I churned this morning."
"You churned this morning! Why, what has come over you, daughter?"
"Dear me, what a fuss about a little churning! As if I"d never done as much before!"
The old man was so well pleased that he did not hint that b.u.t.ter, made in his own house, seemed like a miracle to him.
"But bread--when did we have a baking?"
"No matter about that. There are plenty of cakes, raised with eggs, too."
"That"s capital," said the old man, throwing off a load of anxiety that had oppressed him all the way home. "We shall get along famously.
The young man has got uncommon education, you see, Judith, and it isn"t often that I get a chance to talk with any one given to reading; so I want you to make things extra nice. Now I"ll go and see what can be found on the bushes."
"I"ve picked all the berries, and got them in the dish, father."
"Why, Judith!"
"You asked me to, or as good as that, so there"s nothing to wonder at."
The old man drew a deep breath. A little kindness was enough to make him happy, but this was overpowering.
"So you picked "em for the old man just as if _he_ were company, dear child!--dressed up for him, too!"
Judith blushed guiltily. Her poor father was so easily deceived, that she felt ashamed of so many unnecessary falsehoods.
"I dressed up a little because I wanted to be like other girls."
"I wish you could be more like other girls," said the father, sighing, this time heavily enough; "but it"s of no use wishing, is it, child?"
"I think that there is a great deal of use in it. If it were not for hoping and wishing and dreaming day-dreams, how could one live in this stupid place?"