"Pretty well for two hours. Look!" said Gipsy, displaying a well-filled game-bag.
"Did you kill those birds?" inquired Celeste, lifting her eyes in fear, not unmixed with horror, to the sparkling face of the young huntress.
"To be sure! There! don"t look so horror-struck. I declare if the little coward doesn"t look as if she thought me a demon," said Gipsy, laughing at Celeste"s sorrowful face. "Look! do you see that bird away up there, like a speck in the sky? Well, now watch me bring it down;" and Gipsy, fixing her eagle eye on the distant speck, took deliberate aim.
"Oh, don"t--don"t!" cried Celeste, in an agony of terror; but ere the words were well uttered, they were lost in the sharp crack of her little rifle.
Wounded and bleeding, the bird began rapidly to fall, and, with a wild shriek, Celeste threw up her arms, and fell to the ground.
"Good gracious! if I haven"t scared the life out of Celeste!" exclaimed Gipsy, in dismay, as Archie raised her, pale and trembling, in his arms.
"What a timid little creature!" thought Louis, as he watched her, clinging convulsively to Archie.
"Oh, the bird! the poor bird!" said Celeste, bursting into tears.
Gipsy laughed outright, and pointing to a tree near at hand, said:
"There, Louis, the bird has lodged in that tree; go and get it for her."
Louis darted off to search the tree, and Gipsy, stooping down, said, rather impatiently:
"Now, Celeste, don"t be such a little goose! What harm is it to shoot a bird?--everybody does it."
"I don"t think it"s right; it"s so cruel. Please don"t do it any more,"
said Celeste, pleadingly.
"Can"t promise, dear? _I_ must do something to keep me out of mischief.
But here comes Louis. Well, is it dead?"
"No," said Louis, "but badly wounded. However, I"ll take care of it; and if it recovers, Celeste, you shall have it for a pet."
"Oh, thank you! you"re _so_ good," said Celeste, giving him such a radiant look of grat.i.tude that it quite overcame the gravity of Master Rivers, who fell back, roaring with laughter.
Celeste and Gipsy stood a little apart, conversing, and the boys sat watching them.
"I say, Louis, what do you think of her?" said Archie, pointing to Celeste.
"I think she is perfectly bewitching--the loveliest creature I ever beheld," replied Louis, regarding her with the eye of an artist. "She reminds me of a lily--a dove, so fair, and white, and gentle."
"And Gipsy, what does _she_ remind you of?"
"Oh! of a young Amazon, or a queen eaglet of the mountains, so wild and untamed."
"And Minnette, what is she like?"
"Like a tigress, more than anything else I can think of just now," said Louis, laughing; "beautiful, but rather dangerous when aroused."
"Aroused! I don"t think she could be aroused, she is made of marble."
"Not she. As Miss Hagar says, the day will come when she will, she must feel; every one does sometime in his life. What does Scott say:
""Hearts are not flint, and flints are rent; Hearts are not steel, and steel is bent.""
"Well, if you take to poetry, you"ll keep us here all day," said Archie, rising. "Good-bye, Gipsy; come along Celeste!"
True to promise, Louis adopted the wounded bird; and under his skillful hands it soon recovered and was presented to Celeste. She would have set it free, but Louis said: "No; keep it for my sake, Celeste." And so Celeste kept it; and no words can tell how she grew to love that bird.
It hung in a cage in her chamber, and her greatest pleasure was in attending it. Minnette hated the very sight of it. That it belonged to Celeste would have been enough to make her hate it; but added to that, it had been given her by Louis Oranmore, the only living being Minnette had ever tried to please; and jealousy added tenfold to her hatred.
Seeing the bird hanging, one day, out in the sunshine, she opened the cage-door, and, with the most fiendish and deliberate malice, twisted its neck, and then, going to Celeste, pointed to it with malignant triumph sparkling in her bold, black eyes.
Poor Celeste! She took the dead and mangled body of her pretty favorite in her lap, and sitting down, wept the bitterest tears she had ever shed in her life. Let no one smile at her childish grief; who has been without them? I remember distinctly the saddest tears that ever I shed were over the remains of a beloved kitten, stoned to death. And through all the troubles of after years, that first deep grief never was forgotten.
While she was still sobbing as if her heart would break, a pair of strong arms were thrown around her, and the eager, handsome face of Louis was bending over her.
"Why, Celeste, what in the world are all those tears for?" he inquired, pushing the disheveled golden hair off her wet cheek.
"Oh, Louis, my bird! my poor bird!" she cried, hiding her face on his shoulder, in a fresh burst of grief.
"What! it"s dead, is it?" said Louis, taking it up. "Did the cat get at it?"
"No, no; it wasn"t the cat; it was--it was----"
"_Who?_" said Louis, while his dark eyes flashed. "Did any one dare to kill it? Did Minnette, that young tigress----"
"Oh, Louis! don"t, don"t! You mustn"t call her such dreadful names!"
said Celeste, placing her hand over his mouth. "I don"t think she meant it; don"t be angry with her, please; it"s so dreadful!"
"You little angel!" he said, smoothing gently her fair hair; "no, for your sake I"ll not. Never mind, don"t cry; I"ll get you another, twice as pretty as that!"
"No, Louis; I don"t want any more! I"d rather have the dear birds free!
And now, will you--will you bury poor birdie?" said Celeste, almost choking in her effort to be "good and not cry."
"Yes; here"s a nice spot, under the rose-bush," said Louis; "and I"ll get a tombstone and write a nice epitaph. And you must console yourself with the belief that it"s happy in the bird"s heaven, if there is such a place," added Louis, as he placed poor "Birdie" in its last resting-place.
Half an hour after, Celeste sought the presence of Minnette. She found her sitting by the window, her chin resting on her hand, as was her habit, gazing out. She did not turn round as Celeste entered; but the latter went up softly, and, placing her hand on hers, said gently:
"Minnette, I"m afraid you"re angry with me? I"m very sorry; please forgive me?"
Minnette shook her roughly off, exclaiming:
"Don"t bother me, you little whining thing! Go out of this!"
"Yes; but only say you forgive me, first! Indeed, indeed, Minnette, I didn"t mean to offend you. I want to love you, if you"ll let me!"
"Love!" exclaimed Minnette, springing fiercely to her feet, her black eyes gleaming like fire. "You artful little hypocrite! You consummate little cheat? Don"t talk to me of love! Didn"t I see you in the garden, with your arms around Louis Oranmore, in a way for which you ought to be ashamed of yourself--complaining to him of my wickedness and cruelty in killing the bird he gave you. And yet, after turning him against me, you come here, and tell me you love me! Begone, you miserable little beggar! I hate the very sight of you!"