"Phil, my sweetheart!" she said with a laugh.
"How tender and homelike the music of your voice! The world has never seen the match of your gracious Southern womanhood! s...o...b..und in the North, I dreamed, as a child, of this world of eternal sunshine. And now every memory and dream I"ve found in you."
"And you won"t be disappointed in my simple ideal that finds its all within a home?"
"No. I love the old-fashioned dream of the South. Maybe you have enchanted me, but I love these green hills and mountains, these rivers musical with cascade and fall, these solemn forests--but for the Black Curse, the South would be to-day the garden of the world!"
"And you will help our people lift this curse?" softly asked the girl, nestling closer to his side.
"Yes, dearest, thy people shall be mine! Had I a thousand wrongs to cherish, I"d forgive them all for your sake. I"ll help you build here a new South on all that"s good and n.o.ble in the old, until its dead fields blossom again, its harbours bristle with ships, and the hum of a thousand industries make music in every valley. I"d sing to you in burning verse if I could, but it is not my way. I have been awkward and slow in love, perhaps--but I"ll be swift in your service. I dream to make dead stones and wood live and breathe for you, of victories wrung from Nature that are yours. My poems will be deeds, my flowers the hard-earned wealth that has a soul, which I shall lay at your feet."
"Who said my lover was dumb?" she sighed, with a twinkle in her shining eyes. "You must introduce me to your father soon. He must like me as my father does you, or our dream can never come true."
A pain gripped Phil"s heart, but he answered bravely:
"I will. He can"t help loving you."
They stood on the rustic seat to carve their initials within a circle, high on the old beechwood book of love.
"May I write it out in full--Margaret Cameron--Philip Stoneman?" he asked.
"No--only the initials now--the full names when you"ve seen my father and I"ve seen yours. Jeannie Campbell and Henry Lenoir were once written thus in full, and many a lover has looked at that circle and prayed for happiness like theirs. You can see there a new one cut over the old, the bark has filled, and written on the fresh page is "Marion Lenoir" with the blank below for her lover"s name."
Phil looked at the freshly cut circle and laughed:
"I wonder if Marion or her mother did that?"
"Her mother, of course."
"I wonder whose will be the lucky name some day within it?" said Phil musingly as he finished his own.
CHAPTER X
A NIGHT HAWK
When the old Commoner"s private physician had gone and his mind had fully cleared, he would sit for hours in the sunshine of the vine-clad porch, asking Elsie of the village, its life, and its people. He smiled good-naturedly at her eager sympathy for their sufferings as at the enthusiasm of a child who could not understand. He had come possessed by a great idea--events must submit to it. Her a.s.surance that the poverty and losses of the people were far in excess of the worst they had known during the war was too absurd even to secure his attention.
He had refused to know any of the people, ignoring the existence of Elsie"s callers. But he had fallen in love with Marion from the moment he had seen her. The cold eye of the old fox hunter kindled with the fire of his forgotten youth at the sight of this beautiful girl seated on the glistening back of the mare she had saved from death.
As she rode through the village every boy lifted his hat as to pa.s.sing royalty, and no one, old or young, could allow her to pa.s.s without a cry of admiration. Her exquisite figure had developed into the full tropic splendour of Southern girlhood.
She had rejected three proposals from ardent lovers, on one of whom her mother had quite set her heart. A great fear had grown in Mrs. Lenoir"s mind lest she were in love with Ben Cameron. She slipped her arm around her one day and timidly asked her.
A faint flush tinged Marion"s face up to the roots of her delicate blonde hair, and she answered with a quick laugh:
"Mamma, how silly you are! You know I"ve always been in love with Ben--since I can first remember. I know he is in love with Elsie Stoneman.
I am too young, the world too beautiful, and life too sweet to grieve over my first baby love. I expect to dance with him at his wedding, then meet my fate and build my own nest."
Old Stoneman begged that she come every day to see him. He never tired praising her to Elsie. As she walked gracefully up to the house one afternoon, holding Hugh by the hand, he said to Elsie:
"Next to you, my dear, she is the most charming creature I ever saw. Her tenderness for everything that needs help touches the heart of an old lame man in a very soft spot."
"I"ve never seen any one who could resist her," Elsie answered. "Her gloves may be worn, her feet clad in old shoes, yet she is always neat, graceful, dainty, and serene. No wonder her mother worships her."
Sam Ross, her simple friend, had stopped at the gate, and looked over into the lawn as if afraid to come in.
When Marion saw Sam, she turned back to the gate to invite him in. The keeper of the poor, a vicious-looking negro, suddenly confronted him, and he shrank in terror close to the girl"s side.
"What you doin" here, sah?" the black keeper railed. "Ain"t I done tole you "bout runnin" away?"
"You let him alone," Marion cried.
The negro pushed her roughly from his side and knocked Sam down. The girl screamed for help, and old Stoneman hobbled down the steps, following Elsie.
When they reached the gate, Marion was bending over the prostrate form.
"Oh, my, my, I believe he"s killed him!" she wailed.
"Run for the doctor, sonny, quick," Stoneman said to Hugh. The boy darted away and brought Dr. Cameron.
"How dare you strike that man, you devil?" thundered the old statesman.
""Case I tole "im ter stay home en do de wuk I put "im at, en he all de time runnin" off here ter git somfin" ter eat. I gwine frail de life outen "im, ef he doan min" me."
"Well, you make tracks back to the Poorhouse. I"ll attend to this man, and I"ll have you arrested for this before night," said Stoneman, with a scowl.
The black keeper laughed as he left.
"Not "less you"se er bigger man dan Gubner Silas Lynch, you won"t!"
When Dr. Cameron had restored Sam, and dressed the wound on his head where he had struck a stone in falling, Stoneman insisted that the boy be put to bed.
Turning to Dr. Cameron, he asked:
"Why should they put a brute like this in charge of the poor?"
"That"s a large question, sir, at this time," said the doctor politely, "and now that you have asked it, I have some things I"ve been longing for an opportunity to say to you."
"Be seated, sir," the old Commoner answered, "I shall be glad to hear them."
Elsie"s heart leaped with joy over the possible outcome of this appeal, and she left the room with a smile for the doctor.
"First, allow me," said the Southerner pleasantly, "to express my sorrow at your long illness, and my pleasure at seeing you so well. Your children have won the love of all our people and have had our deepest sympathy in your illness."