"_I won"t!_"
"Obstinate, flinty little thing! Do you like me, Georgia?"
"No!"
"You don"t? Why, Georgia, what a shame! You don"t like me?"
"No, I don"t! I hate you both! You have no business to tease me this way! I won"t forgive him--I never will! I"ll _never_ do anything for you again!"
And, with a fierce flash of the eyes that reminded him of a panther he had once shot, she broke from his retaining grasp and fled out of the house.
He was foiled. He turned away with a slight smile, yet there was a scarcely perceptible shade of annoyance on his high, serene brow, as he took his place beside his brother and drove off.
"What took you back, Rich?" asked Charley.
"I wanted to bid good-by to that unique little specimen of girlhood in there, and get her to pardon you."
"And she would not?"
"No."
"Whew! resisted _your_ all-powerful will! The G.o.ds be praised that you have found your match at last!"
Richmond"s brow slightly contracted, and he gave the horse a quick cut with the whip that sent him flying on.
"And yet I will make her do it," he said, with his calm, peculiar, inexplicable smile.
"Eh?--you will? And how, may I ask?"
"Never you mind--she shall do it! I have conquered her once already, and I shall do it again, although she _has_ refused this time. I did not expect her to yield without a struggle."
"By Jove! there"s some wild blood in that one. There was mischief in her eyes as she turned on me there on the hill. I shall take care to give her a wide berth, and let her severely alone for the future."
"Yes, she is an original--all steel springs--a fine nature if properly trained," said Richmond, musingly.
"A fine fiddlestick!" said Charley, contemptuously; "she"s as sharp as a persimmon, and as sour as an unripe crab-apple, and as full of stings as a whole forest of nettle-trees."
"Do you know, Charles, I fancy Lady Macbeth might have been just such a child?"
"Shouldn"t wonder. The little black-eyed gipsy is fierce enough in all conscience to make a whole batch of Lady Macbeths. May all the powers that be generously grant I may not be the Duncan she is to send to the other world."
"If she is allowed to grow up as she is now, she will certainly be some day capable of even Lady Macbeth"s crime. Pity she has no one better qualified to look after her than that disagreeable old woman."
"Better mind how you talk about the old lady," said Charley; "she and I are as thick as pickpockets. I flattered her beautifully, I flatter myself, and she believes in me to an immense extent. As to the young lady, what do you say to adopting her yourself? You"d be a sweet mentor for youth, wouldn"t you?"
"You may laugh, but I really feel a deep interest in that child," said Richmond.
"Well, for my part," said Charley, "I don"t believe in vixens, young or old, but you--_you_ always had a taste for monsters."
"Not exactly," said Richmond, untying a knot in his whip; "but she is something new; she suits me; I like her."
CHAPTER VI.
TAMING AN EAGLET.
"In her heart Are sown the sparks that kindle fiery war; Occasion needs but fan them and they blaze."
COWPER.
"Mind"s command o"er mind, Spirits o"er spirit, is the clear effect And natural action of an inward gift Given by G.o.d."
All that day little Georgia went wandering aimlessly, restlessly, through the woods, possessed by some walking spirit that would not let her sit still for an instant. She had kept her vow; she had resisted the power of a master mind; she had maintained her free will, and refused to do as he commanded her. Yes, she felt it as a command. She had thrown off the yoke he would have laid on her, and she ought to have exulted in her triumph--in her victory. But, strange to say, it surprised even herself that she had _not_; she felt angry, sullen and dissatisfied. The consciousness that she was wrong and he was right--that she ought to have done as he told her--would force itself upon her in spite of her efforts. How mean and narrow her own conduct did look now that she came to think it over, and the fever of pa.s.sion had pa.s.sed away; had she been brave and generous she felt she would have forgiven him when he so often apologized; it was galling to be laughed at, it was true, but when he was sorry for his fault she knew she ought to have pardoned him. How they both must despise her; what a wicked, ugly, disagreeable little girl they must think her. How she wished she had been better, and had made up friends, and not let them go away thinking her so cross and sullen and obstinate.
"Miss Jerusha says I"m ugly and good for nothing and bad-tempered, and so does every body else. n.o.body loves me or cares for me, and every body says I"ve got the worst temper they ever knew. People don"t do anything but laugh at me and make fun of me and call me names. Mamma and Warren liked me, but they"re dead, and I wish I was dead and buried, too--I do so! I"ll never dance again; I"ll never sing for anyone; I"ll go away somewhere, and never come back. I wish I was pretty and good-tempered and pleasant, like Em Murray: every body loved her; but I ain"t, and never will be. I"m black and ugly and bad-tempered, and every one hates me. Let them hate me, then--I don"t care! I hate them just as much; and I"ll be just as cross and ugly as ever I like. I was made so, and I can"t help it, and I don"t care for any body. I"ll do just as I like, I will so! I can hate people as much as they can hate me, and I will do it, too. I don"t see what I was ever born for; Miss Jerusha says it was to torment people: but I couldn"t help it, and it ain"t my fault, and they have no business to blame me for it. Emily Murray says G.o.d makes people die, and I don"t see why he didn"t let me die, too, when mamma did. Mamma was good, and I expect she"s in heaven, but I"m so bad they"ll never let me there I know! I don"t care for that either. I was made bad, and if they send me to the bad place for it, they may. Em Murray"ll go to Heaven, because she"s good and pretty, and Miss Jerusha says _she"ll_ go, but I don"t believe it. If she does, _I_ sha"n"t go even if they ask me to, for I know she"ll scold all the time up there just as she does down here. If they do let her in, I guess they"ll be pretty sorry for it after, and wish they hadn"t. I "pose them two young gentlemen from New York will go, too, and I know that Charley fellow will laugh when he sees me turned off, just as he did this morning. I don"t believe I ought to have made up with him, after all. I won"t either, if his brother says I _must_. If he lets me alone I may, but I"ll never offer to do anything for him again as long as I live. Oh, dear! I don"t see what I ever was born for at all, and I do wish I never had been, or that I had died with mamma and Warren."
And so, with bitterness in her heart, the child wandered on and on restlessly, as if to escape from herself, with a sense of wrong, and neglect, and injustice forcing itself upon her childish uncultivated mind. She thought of all the hard names and opprobrious epithets Miss Jerusha called her, and "unjust! unjust!" was the cry of her heart as she wandered on. She felt that in all the world there was not such a wicked, unloved child as she, and the untutored heart resolved in its bitterness to repay scorn with scorn, and hate with hate.
It was dark when she came home. She had had no dinner, but with the conflict going on within she had felt no hunger. Miss Jerusha"s supper was over and long since cleared away, and, as might be expected, she was in no very sweet frame of mind at the long absence of her _protegee_.
"Well, you"ve got home at last, have you?" she began sharply, and with her voice pitched in a most aggravating key. "Pretty time o" night this, I must say, to come home, after trampin" round like a vagabone on the face o" the airth all the whole blessed day. You desarve to be switched as long as you can stand, you worthless, lazy, idle young varmint you!
Be off to the kitchen, and see if Fly can"t get you some supper, though you oughtn"t to get a morsel if you were rightly sarved. Other folks has to toil for what they eat, but you live on other folks" vittals, and do nothing, you indolent little tramper you!"
Miss Jerusha paused for want of breath, expecting the angry retort this style of address never failed to extort from the excitable little bomb-sh.e.l.l before her, but to her surprise none came. The child stood with compressed lips, dark and gloomy, gazing into the fading fire.
"Well, why don"t you go?" said Miss Jerusha angrily. "You ought to take your betters" leavin"s and be thankful, though there"s no such thing as thankfulness in you, I do believe. Go!"
"I don"t want your supper; you may keep it," said Georgia, with proud sullenness.
"Oh, you don"t! Of course not! it"s not good enough for your ladyship, by no manner of means," said Miss Jerusha, with withering sarcasm.
"Hadn"t I better order some cake and wine for your worship? Dear, dear!
what ladies we are, to be sure! Is there anything particularly nice I could get for you, marm, eh? P"raps Fly"d better run to Burnfield for some plum puddin" or suthin", hey? Oh, dear me, ain"t we dainty, though."
Georgia actually gnashed her teeth, and turned livid with pa.s.sion as she listened, and, with a spring, she stood before the startled Miss Jerusha, her eyes glaring in the partial darkness like those of a wild-cat. Miss Jerusha, in alarm, lifted a chair as a weapon of defense against the expected attack; but the attack was not made.
Clasping her hands over her head with a sort of irrepressible cry, she fled from the room, up the stairs into her own little chamber, fastened the door, and then sank down, white and quivering, on the floor of the room.
How long she lay there she could not tell; gusts of pa.s.sion swept through her soul. Wild, fierce, and maddening raged the conflict within--one of those delirious storms of the heart--known and felt only by those whose fiery, tropical veins seem to run fire instead of blood.
She heard Miss Jerusha"s step on the stairs, heard her approach her door and listen for a moment, and then go to her own chamber and securely lock the door.
In that moment the half crazed child hated her; hated all the world; feeling as though she could have killed her were it in her power. Then this unnatural mood pa.s.sed away--it was too unnatural to last--and she rose from the floor, looking like a spirit, with her streaming hair, wild eyes, and white face. She went to the window and opened it, for her head throbbed and ached, and leaning her forehead against the cool gla.s.s, she looked out.
How still and serene everything was! The river lay bright and beautiful in the dark bright starlight. The pine trees waved dreamily in the soft spring breeze, and the odor of their fragrant leaves came borne to where she sat. The silence of the grave reigned around, the lonesome forest seemed lonelier than ever to-night, and so deep was the stillness that the plaintive cry of the whip-poor-will, as it rose at intervals, sounded startlingly loud and shrill. She lifted her eyes to the high, bright, solemn stars that seemed looking down pityingly upon the poor little orphan child, and all her wickedness and pa.s.sion pa.s.sed away, and a mysterious awe, deep and holy, entered that tempest-tossed young heart. The soft, cool breeze lifted her dark elf locks, and lingered and cooled her hot brow like a friend"s kiss. Georgia had often looked at the stars before, but they never seemed to have such high and holy beauty as they possessed to-night.
"G.o.d made the stars," thought Georgia; "I wonder what He made them for?