"You never can exactly reckon about them; that"s true."
He was led to think: "Dahlia"s the la.s.s;" seeing that Robert had not had many opportunities of speaking with her.
"When my girls are wives, they"ll do their work in the house," he pursued. "They may have a little bit o" property in land, ye know, and they may have a share in--in gold. That"s not to be reckoned on. We"re an old family, Robert, and I suppose we"ve our pride somewhere down.
Anyhow, you can"t look on my girls and not own they"re superior girls.
I"ve no notion of forcing them to clean, and dish up, and do dairying, if it"s not to their turn. They"re handy with th" needle. They dress conformably, and do the millinery themselves. And I know they say their prayers of a night. That I know, if that"s a comfort to ye, and it should be, Robert. For pray, and you can"t go far wrong; and it"s particularly good for girls. I"ll say no more."
At the dinner-table, Rhoda was not present. Mr. Fleming fidgeted, blamed her and excused her, but as Robert appeared indifferent about her absence, he was confirmed in his idea that Dahlia attracted his fancy.
They had finished dinner, and Master Gammon had risen, when a voice immediately recognized as the voice of Anthony Hackbut was heard in the front part of the house. Mr. Fleming went round to him with a dismayed face.
"Lord!" said Mrs. Sumfit, "how I tremble!"
Robert, too, looked grave, and got away from the house. The dread of evil news of Dahlia was common to them all; yet none had mentioned it, Robert conceiving that it would be impertinence on his part to do so; the farmer, that the policy of permitting Dahlia"s continued residence in London concealed the peril; while Mrs. Sumfit flatly defied the threatening of a mischance to one so sweet and fair, and her favourite.
It is the insincerity of persons of their cla.s.s; but one need not lay stress on the wilfulness of uneducated minds. Robert walked across the fields, walking like a man with an object in view. As he dropped into one of the close lanes which led up to Wrexby Hall, he saw Rhoda standing under an oak, her white morning-dress covered with sun-spots.
His impulse was to turn back, the problem, how to speak to her, not being settled within him. But the next moment his blood chilled; for he had perceived, though he had not felt simultaneously, that two gentlemen were standing near her, addressing her. And it was likewise manifest that she listened to them. These presently raised their hats and disappeared. Rhoda came on toward Robert.
"You have forgotten your dinner," he said, with a queer sense of shame at dragging in the mention of that meal.
"I have been too happy to eat," Rhoda replied.
Robert glanced up the lane, but she gave no heed to this indication, and asked: "Has uncle come?"
"Did you expect him?"
"I thought he would come."
"What has made you happy?"
"You will hear from uncle."
"Shall I go and hear what those--"
Robert checked himself, but it would have been better had he spoken out. Rhoda"s face, from a light of interrogation, lowered its look to contempt.
She did not affect the feminine simplicity which can so prettily misunderstand and put by an implied accusation of that nature. Doubtless her sharp instinct served her by telling her that her contempt would hurt him shrewdly now. The foolishness of a man having much to say to a woman, and not knowing how or where the beginning of it might be, was perceptible about him. A shout from her father at the open garden-gate, hurried on Rhoda to meet him. Old Anthony was at Mr. Fleming"s elbow.
"You know it? You have her letter, father?" said Rhoda, gaily, beneath the shadow of his forehead.
"And a Queen of the Egyptians is what you might have been," said Anthony, with a speculating eye upon Rhoda"s dark bright face.
Rhoda put out her hand to him, but kept her gaze on her father.
William Fleeting relaxed the knot of his brows and lifted the letter.
"Listen all! This is from a daughter to her father."
And he read, oddly accentuating the first syllables of the sentences:--
Dear Father,--
"My husband will bring me to see you when I return to dear England.
I ought to have concealed nothing, I know. Try to forgive me. I hope you will. I shall always think of you. G.o.d bless you!
"I am, "Ever with respect,
"Your dearly loving Daughter,
"Dahlia."
"Dahlia Blank!" said the farmer, turning his look from face to face.
A deep fire of emotion was evidently agitating him, for the letter rustled in his hand, and his voice was uneven. Of this, no sign was given by his inexpressive features. The round brown eyes and the ruddy varnish on his cheeks were a mask upon grief, if not also upon joy.
"Dahlia--what? What"s her name?" he resumed. "Here--"my husband will bring me to see you"--who"s her husband? Has he got a name? And a blank envelope to her uncle here, who"s kept her in comfort for so long! And this is all she writes to me! Will any one spell out the meaning of it?"
"Dahlia was in great haste, father," said Rhoda.
"Oh, ay, you!--you"re the one, I know," returned the farmer. "It"s sister and sister, with you."
"But she was very, very hurried, father. I have a letter from her, and I have only "Dahlia" written at the end--no other name."
"And you suspect no harm of your sister."
"Father, how can I imagine any kind of harm?"
"That letter, my girl, sticks to my skull, as though it meant to say, "You"ve not understood me yet." I"ve read it a matter of twenty times, and I"m no nearer to the truth of it. But, if she"s lying, here in this letter, what"s she walking on? How long are we to wait for to hear? I give you my word, Robert, I"m feeling for you as I am for myself. Or, wasn"t it that one? Is it this one?" He levelled his finger at Rhoda.
"In any case, Robert, you"ll feel for me as a father. I"m shut in a dark room with the candle blown out. I"ve heard of a sort of fear you have in that dilemmer, lest you should lay your fingers on edges of sharp knives, and if I think a step--if I go thinking a step, and feel my way, I do cut myself, and I bleed, I do. Robert, just take and say, it wasn"t that one."
Such a statement would carry with it the confession that it was this one for whom he cared this scornful one, this jilt, this brazen girl who could make appointments with gentlemen, or suffer them to speak to her, and subsequently look at him with innocence and with anger.
"Believe me, Mr. Fleming, I feel for you as much as a man can," he said, uneasily, swaying half round as he spoke.
"Do you suspect anything bad?" The farmer repeated the question, like one who only wanted a confirmation of his own suspicions to see the fact built up. "Robert, does this look like the letter of a married woman? Is it daughter-like--eh, man? Help another: I can"t think for myself--she ties my hands. Speak out."
Robert set his eyes on Rhoda. He would have given much to have been able to utter, "I do." Her face was like an eager flower straining for light; the very beauty of it swelled his jealous pa.s.sion, and he flattered himself with his incapacity to speak an abject lie to propitiate her.
"She says she is married. We"re bound to accept what she says."
That was his answer.
"Is she married?" thundered the farmer. "Has she been and disgraced her mother in her grave? What am I to think? She"s my flesh and blood. Is she--"
"Oh, hush, father!" Rhoda laid her hand on his arm. "What doubt can there be of Dahlia? You have forgotten that she is always truthful. Come away. It is shameful to stand here and listen to unmanly things."
She turned a face of ashes upon Robert.
"Come away, father. She is our own. She is my sister. A doubt of her is an insult to us."