"I"m sure it never could by me, in that style," said Mrs. Derrick,--"my fingers always think they are ironing or making piecrust. But child, here"s Dr. Harrison--come for n.o.body knows what, except that Sophy took it into her head to send her heart by him--as near as I can make out.
And he wants you to go to Deep River to-morrow. I said you wouldn"t--and then I thought maybe you"d better speak yourself. But if you don"t like to, you sha"n"t. I can deal with him."
"I don"t want to see Dr. Harrison, mother!--To-morrow?" said Faith.
"Yes--I will see him."
She rose up, laid her pen delicately out of her fingers, went down stairs and into the sitting-room, where she confronted the doctor.
Faith was dressed as she had been at the party, with the single exception of the blue ribband instead of the red oak leaves; and the excitement of what she had been about was stirring both cheek and eye.
Perhaps some other stir was there too, for the flush was a little deeper than it had been upstairs, but she met the doctor very quietly.
He thought to himself the lanterns had lent nothing with their illumination the other night.
"No, sir," she said as he offered her a chair,--"I have something to do;--but mother said--"
"Will the bird perch for no longer than this?" said the doctor, turning with humourous appeal to Mrs. Derrick who had followed her.
"My birds do pretty much as they like, Dr. Harrison," said Mrs. Derrick "They always did, even when I had "em in cages."
"Then this bird is free now?"
"I guess you"d better talk to her--" said Mrs. Derrick, taking her seat and her knitting again.
"Miss Derrick!" said the doctor obeying this direction with an obeisance,--"you are free to command, and I can but obey. Will you go with Sophy to-morrow to Deep River? I am not altogether uninterested, as I hope to have the honour of driving you; but she sends her most, earnest wish."
"To-morrow is Sunday, Dr. Harrison."
"Well--isn"t Sunday a good day?"
"It isn"t mine," said Faith gently.
"Not yours?" said the doctor. "You have promised it away, and we are so unfortunate?"
Her colour rose a little, but it was with an eye as steady as it was soft that she answered him.
"The day belongs to G.o.d, Dr. Harrison--and I have promised it, and myself, away to him."
The doctor looked astonished for a minute. And he gazed at her.
"But, my dear Miss Derrick, do you think there is anything contrary to the offices of religion in taking a pleasant drive, in a pleasant country, in pleasant weather? that is all."
Faith smiled a little, gravely; it was very sweet and very grave.
"There are all the other days for that," she said. "G.o.d has given us his work to be done on his day, Dr. Harrison; and there is so much of it to do that I never find the day long enough."
"You are right!" he said--"You are quite right. You are a great deal better than I am. I am sorry I asked you,--and yet I am glad.--Then Miss Derrick, will you forgive me? and will you some other day shew that you forgive me and be so good as to go with us?"
But Faith"s interest in the subject was gone.
"I am very busy, sir," she said. "I have work to do that I do not wish to put off."
"Cannot you go with us _at all?_ We will wait and make it any day?"
"Do not wait," said Faith. "I _could_ go, but I could not go with pleasure, Dr. Harrison. I have not the time to spare, for that, nor for more now. Please excuse me."
And she went.
"Mrs. Derrick," said the doctor musingly, "this is a winged creature, I believe--but it is not a bird!"
At which Mrs. Derrick looked at him with a mingled satisfaction that he had got his answer, and curiosity to know what he thought of it. For the further she felt herself from her child"s high stand, the more presuming did she think it in any one to try to bring _her_ down from it.
"If I thought, as I came here, that I walked on a higher level than the generality of mankind, as perhaps in the vanity of my heart I did,--I feel well put down on the ground now," pursued the doctor. "But Mrs Derrick, when may I hope to see this winged thing of yours again?"
It must be confessed that Mrs. Derrick did not admire this speech,--"a winged thing," as she justly thought, was a somewhat indefinite term, and might mean a flying gra.s.shopper as well as a canary bird. Therefore it was with some quickness that she replied,
"What sort of a winged thing are you talking of, doctor?"
"Nothing worse than a heavenly one, madam. But angel or cherub are such worn-out terms that I avoided them."
He was standing yet where Faith left him, looking down gravely, speaking half lightly, to her mother.
"I don"t know who"ll see her when she"s an angel," said Mrs. Derrick, with a little flush coming over her eyes. "But she wouldn"t thank you for calling her one now," she added presently, with her usual placid manner. "Won"t you sit down again, doctor?"
"May I ask," said he eying her, somewhat intent upon the answer,--"why she wouldn"t thank me for calling her one now?--by which I understand that it would incur her displeasure."
"Why--why should she?" said Mrs. Derrick, who having dropped a st.i.tch was picking it up with intentness equal to the doctor"s.
"True!" said the doctor in his usual manner. "Angels don"t thank mortals for looking at them. But Mrs. Derrick, when may such a poor mortal as I, stand a chance of seeing this particular one again?"
Mrs. Derrick laid down her work.
"Well you _have_ changed!" she said, "there"s no doubt of that! I don"t recollect that you used to care so much about seeing her when you were here before. If I don"t forget, you set your dog on her cat. And as to when you"ll see her again, I"m sure I can"t tell, doctor. She"s a busy child, and folks out of the house have to do without seeing her till she finds time to see them." Whereat Mrs Derrick smiled upon Dr.
Harrison with the happy consciousness that she was one of the folks in the house.
The doctor stood smiling at her, with a half humourous, quite pleasant expression of face.
"Set my dog on her cat!" he exclaimed. "_That_ is why she would be angry with me for calling her a cherub!--
"Tantae ne animis celestibus irae!""
The doctor sat down.
"What shall I do!" he said. "Advise me, Mrs. Derrick."
"I know what I should have done if I"d got hold of you," said Mrs.
Derrick. "I thought I never would speak to you again--but you see I"ve got over it."
"I"m not sure of it," said the doctor meditatively. ""Folks out of the house"--well! It strikes me I"ve been "in" to little purpose this afternoon."--He rose again. "Where is Mr. Linden? is he "out", or "in", this fine day?"
"He"s out this afternoon," said Mrs. Derrick. "I was thinking to ask you if you wanted to see him, and then I knew it was no use."