"How do you know?" Beth said. "Robbing women of the means to develop their talents doesn"t prove they haven"t any. The best horseman in the world could never have ridden if he hadn"t had a horse. I certainly think a woman should see to the ordering of her household; but if she has it in her to do more why shouldn"t she? _I_ shall want to do more, I know. I shall want to be something; and I shall never believe that I cannot be that something until I have tried the experiment. If you have it in you to be a sculptor, be a sculptor. _I_ certainly should, girl and all as I am. I couldn"t help it."
"You"re very valiant!" he said drily; "but you don"t know what it is to have your whole family against you."
"Don"t I?" said Beth, laughing. "I"ve known that all my life; but I"ve known something besides. I"ve known what it is to be myself. If you know yourself, and yourself is a sculptor, you"re bound to be a sculptor in spite of your family."
He looked at her admiringly. "When you talk like that, I feel I could be anything or do anything that you like, I love you so," he ventured, flipping the gra.s.s with his stick to cover his boyish embarra.s.sment.
"I am thinking of you always, all day long."
"Isn"t it strange!" Beth answered softly. "And only two days ago we had never met!"
"But now we shall never part," he said. "Only I don"t want you to be anything, or to care to be anything, but just my wife."
The word wife came upon Beth with the shock of a sweet surprise. She had not realised that she would ever be asked to be any one"s wife; that seemed something reserved for the honour of beings above her, beautiful beings in books; and the hot flush of joy that suffused her at the word rendered her oblivious to the condition attached. She looked up in the young man"s face with eyes full of love and grat.i.tude, her transparent skin bright with a delicate blush, and her lips just parted in a smile.
"You _are_ sweet, Beth!" he exclaimed. "How sweet you are!"
For the next few weeks they saw each other every day, if it were only for a few minutes; but even when they contrived to spend long hours together it was not enough. Beth scarcely ate or slept at that time; the glow and spring and flood of feeling that coursed through her whole being sustained her.
"When we are married we shall always be together," Alfred would whisper when they had to separate; and then their eyes would dilate with joy at the heavenly prospect; each was covered the while with smiles and confusion neither of which they could control. They made each other no formal vows. It was all taken for granted between them.
Now they were engaged; but when they were old enough, and had an income, they were to be married.
Alfred had given up the idea of making Mrs. Caldwell"s acquaintance before it was absolutely necessary. For the present, it delighted them to think that their secret was all their own, and no one suspected it, except d.i.c.ksie, the vicar"s hunchback son, whom Alfred had taken into his confidence. d.i.c.ksie was as old as Alfred, but his deformity had stunted his growth, and the young lovers, looking down into his pathetic face, were filled with compa.s.sion, and eagerly anxious to make atonement to him for his misfortune by sharing as much of their happiness with him as might be. They encouraged him to accompany them in their walks when he could, which was a joy to him, for he was content to live upon the fringe of their romance unselfishly. When they separated, Beth and Alfred kissed each other frankly, and then Beth would stoop and kiss d.i.c.ksie also, in pure affection.
Neither of the three troubled themselves about other people in those days, and they never suspected that their own doings could be of consequence to anybody. They therefore remained serenely unaware of the fact that the whole place was talking about them, their own relations being the only people who did not know of the intimacy; and, worse still, everybody objected to it. All the forces of Nature combined, and the vast scheme of the universe itself had been ordered so as to unite those two young things; but, on the other hand, the whole machinery of civilisation was set in readiness to keep them apart. And the first intimation they had of this fact took them by surprise.
The whole happy summer had pa.s.sed, and autumn was with them, mellow, warm, and still. The days were shorter then, and the young people delighted to slip out at dusk, and wander about the fields, all three together. A gate opened from the vicarage grounds into the field-path beside the church, and there Alfred and d.i.c.ksie waited till Beth appeared, and often waited in vain, for Beth could not always get out.
Her mother told Lady Benyon that Beth was tiresome rather than naughty in those days. She seemed to have no idea of time. She would stay out so late that her mother became quite fidgety about her, not knowing what had become of her; and when Beth came in at last in a casual way, beaming blandly at every one, it was certainly provoking. Beth thought her mother unreasonable to object to her late rambles. She was not giving her any trouble; and she could not understand why her mother was not content to let her be happy in her own way.
Beth"s lessons became more perfunctory than ever that summer. Mrs.
Caldwell salved her own conscience on the subject by arguing that it is not wise to teach a girl too much when she is growing so fast, and Lady Benyon agreed. Lady Benyon had no patience with people who over-educate girls--with boys it was different; but let a girl grow up strong and healthy, and get her married as soon as possible, was what she advised. Had any one asked what was to become of a girl brought up for that purpose solely, if no one were found to marry her, Lady Benyon would have disposed of the question with a shrug of the shoulders. She laid down the principle, and if it did not act, somebody must be to blame. The principle itself was good, she was sure of that. So Beth was kept without intellectual discipline to curb her senses at this critical period, and the consequence was that her energy took the form of sensuous rather than intellectual pursuits.
Her time was devoted not to practising, but to playing; to poetry, and to dreamy musings. She wove words to music at the piano by the hour together, lolled about in languorous att.i.tudes, was more painfully concerned than ever about her personal adornment, delighted in scents and in luxurious imaginings, and altogether fed her feelings to such excess, that if her moral nature were not actually weakened, it was certainly endangered.
Fortunately she had an admirable companion in Alfred. The boy is not naturally like a beast, unable to restrain his pa.s.sions, a bit more than the girl. To men as to women the power to control themselves comes of the determination. There are cases of natural depravity, of course, but they are not peculiar to either s.e.x; and as the girl may inherit the father"s vices, so may the boy have his mother to thank for his virtues. Depravity is oftener acquired than inherited. As a rule, the girl"s surroundings safeguard her from the acquisition; but when they do not, she becomes as bad as the boy. The boy, on the contrary, especially if he is sent to a public school, is systematically trained to be vicious. He learns the Latin grammar from his masters, and from the habitual conversation of the other boys, the books secretly circulated by them, and their traditional code of vice, he becomes familiarised with the most hoggish habits. He may escape the practical initiation by a miracle at the time; but it is from the mind familiar with ideas of vice that the vicious impulse eventually springs; and the seed of corruption once sown in it, bears fruit almost inevitably.
Alfred had escaped this contamination by being kept at home at a day-school, and when Beth knew him he was as refined and high-minded as he was virile for his age, and as self-restrained as she was impetuous. She wanted to hurry on, and shape their lives; but he was content to let things come about. She lived in the future, he in the present; and he was teaching her to do the same, which was an excellent thing for her. Often when she was making plans he would check her by saying, "Aren"t you satisfied? I can"t imagine myself happier than I am at this moment."
One thing neither of them ever antic.i.p.ated, and that was interference.
They expected those happy days to last without interruption until the happier ones came, when they should be independent, and could do as they liked.
"When I am king, diddle, diddle, you shall be queen," Alfred used to sing to Beth; "and d.i.c.ksie shall be prime minister."
One night they were out in the fields together. Beth was sitting on a rail, with her arm round d.i.c.ksie"s neck, as he stood on one side of her; Alfred being on the other, with his arm round her, supporting her. They were talking about flowers. Alfred was great on growing flowers. The vicar had given him a piece of the vicarage garden for his own, and he was going to build a little green-house to keep Beth well supplied with bouquets. They were deeply engrossed in the subject, and the night was exceedingly dark, so that they did not notice a sailor creep stealthily up the field behind them on the other side of the hedge, and crouch down near enough to hear all that they said. Certainly that sailor was never more at sea in his life than he was while he listened to their innocent prattle.
When at last Beth said it was time to go home, and they strolled away arm in arm, Alfred and d.i.c.ksie discovered that they were late, and Beth insisted on parting from them at the field-gate into the vicarage grounds instead of letting them see her safe into the street. When they left her, she hurried on down the path beside the church alone, and she had not taken many steps before she was suddenly confronted by a tall dark man, who made as if he would not let her pa.s.s. She stopped startled, and then went straight up to him boldly and peered into his face.
"Is that you, Gard?" she exclaimed. "How dare you!"
"How dare you!" he rejoined impudently. "I"ve had my eye on you for some time. I saw you out there just now in the field. I was determined to know what you were up to. There"s mighty little happens here that I don"t know."
"Oh," said Beth, "so you"re the town spy, are you? Well, you"re not going to spy upon me, so I warn you, Mr. Gard. The next time I come here, I"ll come armed, and if I catch you d.o.g.g.i.ng me about again, I"ll shoot you as dead as my father"s pistols can do it. And as it is, you shall pay for this, I promise you. Just step aside now, you cowardly black devil, and let me pa.s.s. Do you think that it"s milk I"ve got in my veins that you come out on a fool"s errand to frighten me?"
Without a word the man stepped aside, and Beth walked on down the path with her head in the air, and deliberately, to let him see how little she feared him.
The next morning, directly after breakfast, she went down to the pier.
Count Bartahlinsky"s yacht was alongside, and Gard was on deck. He changed countenance when Beth appeared. She ran down the ladder.
"I want to see your master," she said.
"He can"t see you, miss. He"s given orders that he"s not to be disturbed for no one whatsoever," Gard answered with excess of deference; "and it"s as much as my billet is worth to go near him; he"s very much occupied this morning."
"Don"t tell lies," said Beth. "I"m going to see him."
She went forward to the skylight as she spoke, and called down, "Below there, Count Gustav!"
"h.e.l.lo!" a voice replied. "Is that you, Beth? You know you"re too big to be on the yacht now without a chaperon."
"Rot!" said Beth.
"Don"t be coa.r.s.e, Beth," Count Gustav remonstrated from below in rather a precious tone. "You know how I dislike hoyden English."
"Well, then, _nonsense_! if that"s any better," Beth rejoined. "You"ve got to see me--this once at all events, or there"ll be a tragedy."
"Oh, in that case," was the resigned reply, "I"ll come on deck."
Beth walked aft and waited for him, enthroned on the bulwark, with a coil of rope for her footstool.
When Count Gustav appeared, he looked at her quizzically. "What is the matter, Beth?" he asked. "What are you boiling with indignation about now?"
"About that man Gard," Beth replied. "What do you think he was doing last night? and not for the first time, by his own account. Spying!"
"Spying!" said Bartahlinsky. "Gard, come here."
Gard, who had been anxiously watching them from amidships, approached.
"Now, Beth, what do you mean?" said the Count.
"I mean that I was out sitting on a rail in the church-fields last night with Alfred Cayley Pounce and d.i.c.ksie Richardson talking, and this man came and listened; and then when I left them, he met me on the path beside the church, and spoke impudently to me, and would not let me pa.s.s. I know what you thought," she broke out, turning upon Gard. "You thought I was doing something that I was ashamed of, and you"d find it out, and have me in your power. But I"ll have you know that I do nothing I"m ashamed of--nothing I should be ashamed to tell your master about, so you may save yourself the trouble of spying upon me, Black Gard, as they well call you."
Gard was about to say something, but Count Gustav stopped him peremptorily. "You can go," he said. "I"ll hear what you have to say later."
Then he sat down beside Beth, and talked to her long and earnestly. He advised her to give up her rambles with Alfred and d.i.c.ksie; but she a.s.sured him that that was impossible.
"Who else have I?" she asked pathetically. "And what am I to do with my days if they never come into them again?"
"You ought to have been sent to school, Beth, long ago, and I told your mother so," Count Gustav answered, frowning. "And, by Jove, I"ll tell her again," he thought, "before it"s too late."
The encounter with Gard added excitement to the charm of Beth"s next meeting with the boys. It made them all feel rather important. They discussed it incessantly, speculating as to what the man"s object could have been. Alfred said vulgar curiosity; but Beth suspected that there was more than that in the manoeuvre; and when d.i.c.ksie suggested acutely that Gard had intended to blackmail them, she and Alfred both exclaimed that that was it!
They had gone about together all this time in the most open way; now they began to talk about caution and concealment, like the persecuted lovers of old romance, who had powerful enemies, and were obliged to manage their meetings so that they should not be suspected. They decided not to speak to each other in public, and, consequently, when they met in the street, they pa.s.sed with such an elaborate parade of ignoring each other, and yet with such evident enjoyment of the position, that people began to wonder what on earth they were up to.