Gregory at once joined Annie, saying, "Since the beau of your choice has deserted you, will you accept of another?"
"Yes, till he proves alike inconstant."
"I will see to that. A burr shall be my emblem."
"Or I do," she added, laughing.
"Now the future is beyond my power."
"Perhaps it is anyway. Johnny was bent upon being a true knight. You may see something that will be to you what the chipmonk was to him."
"And such is your opinion of man"s constancy? Miss Walton, you are more of a cynic than I am."
"Indeed! Do women dwell in your fancy as fixed stars?"
"Fixed stars are all suns, are they not? I know of one with wonderful powers of attraction," said he, with a significant glance.
"Does she live in New York?" quietly asked Annie.
"You know well she does not. She is a votaress of nature, and, as I said, I shall search in every burr for the hidden clew to her favor."
"You had better look for chestnuts, sir."
"Chestnuts! Fit food for children and chipmonks. I am in quest of the only manna that ever fell from heaven. Have you read Longfellow"s "Golden Legend," Miss Walton?"
"Yes," she replied, with a slight contraction of the brow as if the suggestion were not pleasing.
The children now came running toward them and wished to resume their old places. "No, sir," said Walter, decisively. "You deserted your lady"s side and your place is filled; and Susie--
""Thou fair, false one,"
--you renounced me for a chipmonk. My wounded heart has found solace in another."
Johnny received this charge against his gallantry with a red face and eyes that began to dilate with anger, while Susie looked at Gregory poutingly and said, "I don"t like big beaux. I think chipmonks are ever so much nicer."
The laugh that followed broke the force of the storm that was brewing; and Annie, by saying, "See, children, Jeff is climbing the tree on top of the hill; I wonder who will get the first nuts," caused the wind to veer round from the threatening quarter, and away they scampered with grievances all forgotten.
"If grown-up children could only forget their troubles as easily!"
sighed Gregory. "Miss Walton, you are gifted with admirable tact. Your witchery has cleared up another storm."
"They have not forgotten," said Annie, ignoring the compliment--"they have only been diverted from their trouble. Children can do by nature what we should from intelligent choice--turn away the mind from painful subjects to those that are pleasing. You don"t catch me brooding over trouble when there are a thousand pleasant things to think of."
"That is easier said than done, Miss Walton. I read on your smooth brow that you have had few serious troubles, and, as you say, "_you_ have a thousand pleasant things to think of." But with others it may be very different. Some troubles have a terrible magnetism that draws the mind back to them as if by a malign spell, and there are no "pleasant things to think of.""
"No "pleasant things"? Why, Mr. Gregory! The universe is very wide."
"Present company excepted," replied he gallantly. "But what do I care for the universe? As you say, it is "very wide"--a big, uncomfortable place, in which one is afraid of getting lost."
"I am not," said Annie, gently.
"How so?"
"It"s all my Father"s house. I am never for a moment lost sight of.
Wherever I am, I am like a little child playing outside the door while its mother, unseen, is watching it from the window."
He looked at her keenly to see if she were perfectly sincere. Her face had the expression of a child, and the thought flashed across him, "If she is so watched and guarded, how vain are my attempts!"
But he only said with a shrug, "It would be a pity to dissipate your happy superst.i.tion, Miss Walton, but after what I have seen and experienced in the world it would seem more generally true that the mother forgot her charge, left the window, and the child was run over by the butcher"s cart."
"Do you think it vain confidence," said Annie, earnestly, "when I say that you could not dissipate what you term my "superst.i.tion," any more than you could argue me out of my belief in my good old father"s love?"
CHAPTER XIII
INTERPRETING CHESTNUT BURRS
The conversation had taken a turn that Gregory wished to avoid, so he said: "Miss Walton, you regard me as wretched authority on theology, and therefore my opinions will go for nothing. Suppose we join the children on the hill, for I am most anxious to commence the search for the clew to your favor. Give me your hand, that as your attendant I may at least appear to a.s.sist you in climbing, though I suppose you justly think you could help me more than I can you."
"And if I can, why should I not?" asked Annie, kindly.
"Indeed, Miss Walton, I would crawl up first. But thanks to your reviving influences, I am not so far gone as that."
"Then you would not permit a woman to reach out a helping hand to you?
Talk not against Turks and Arabs. How do Christian men regard us?"
"But you look upon me as a "heathen.""
"Beg your pardon, I do not."
"Miss Walton, give your honest opinion of me--just what you think."
"Will you do the same of me?"
"Oh, certainly!"
"No, do not answer in that tone. On your honor."
Gregory was now caught. If he agreed he must state his doubts of her real goodness; his low estimate of women in general which led to his purpose to tempt her. This would not only arm her against his efforts, but place him in a very unpleasant light. "I beat a retreat, Miss Walton. I am satisfied that your opinion would discourage me utterly."
"You need have no fears of that kind," she said; "although my opinion would not be flattering it would be most encouraging."
"No, Miss Walton, I am not to be caught. My every glance and word reveal my opinion of you, while yours of me amounts to what I used to hear years ago: "You are a bad boy now, but may become a good one."
Come, give me your hand."