"What, Norah," said Mavis, laughing, "you a country girl, and afraid of a flitter-mouse!"
"Yes," said Billy, "she"s afraid of the flitty-mouse. Isn"t she a coward? You are a coward, Norah."
And then the laugh was turned against Billy; for the bat pa.s.sing again and lower than before, Billy himself ducked and crouched automatically.
"Who"s the coward now, young sir?"
"I don"t mind anything that has wings," said Rachel. "It"s what goes creeping and crawling that I"m afraid of."
"I don"t mind ear-wigs," said Billy defiantly.
And Dale, while he talked without interest and ate without appet.i.te, watched Norah. She had changed her gown an hour ago, and obviously when changing had discarded the burden of under-petticoats; this other gown hung close and yet limp about her limbs, modeling itself to each slim length and shapely curve; and he thought it made her look like the statue of a Grecian hand-maiden-such as he had seen many years before in ill.u.s.trations of learned books. When she stood near him, he noticed nothing but the blackness of her hair or the whiteness of her cheeks; and then he thought she looked somehow wild and fantastic, like a person that one can see only in dreams. But whether she was near him or at a little distance, so long as she remained in sight, he was unintermittently conscious that the essential charm that she shed forth could be traced directly to her youth.
"Good night, daddy."
"Good night, Rachel."
His daughter had kissed him, and she stood between his knees while he patted her and caressed her. She too was young and fresh and sweet-smelling; and yet the touch of her purified one. So long as he was holding her, it seemed to him that a father"s love is so great and so pure that there can not be any other love in the world.
But a minute afterward, when his own girl had gone and the other girl was again before his eyes, all the impure unworthy unpermissible desires came rushing back upon him.
They lighted lamps in the kitchen presently, and he sat staring at the open doorway, alone now, after the table had been cleared. The doorway seemed like an empty picture-frame. But each time that Norah came and stood there looking out for a moment, the picture was in its frame.
With the light behind her, she was just a thin black figure; and he thought how slight, how weak and small a thing to possess such tremendous, almost irresistible power over him.
Next evening, between tea-time and supper-time, Norah absented herself without leave. Mavis did not miss her at first. Then she thought that very probably the girl was wandering about with the children, or gossiping with the maid at the dairy; but then old Mrs. Goudie, who had come to pay a call at the back door, said she had met Norah and had a chat with her "up th" road." On being further examined, Mrs.
Goudie said that Norah, after bidding her good night, had got over the stile at the second footpath into Hadleigh Wood.
Mavis at once became angry and suspicious again, and she went to her husband to report this act of rebellion. The office was empty, but she found him at the yard. He was in his shirt-sleeves, sitting on a corn-bin, and he seemed to be greatly troubled by what she told him that she wished him to do. She asked him to go into the wood himself and spy out Norah quietly, and see if she was really alone there.
"Oh, I don"t much like this job, Mav. Besides, it"s to hunt for a needle in a bundle of hay. How do I know which way the la.s.s has gone?"
"I"m telling you she went in at the second path. She won"t have gone far. Probably you"ll come upon her this side of the rides--along by the stream, very likely."
But Dale still showed reluctance to undertake the detective mission.
"Then I must go," said Mavis. "I can"t put up with this sort of thing, and I mean to stop it. She must be made to understand once for all--"
"Very well," said Dale; and he got off the corn-bin and picked up his jacket.
"She"ll pay more heed to you than she would to me. But, one word, Will. If you catch her with a young man don"t go and lose your temper with him. Don"t bother about him. Just bring the young minx straight home."
"An" suppose there"s no young man."
"Bring her back just the same, and lecture her all the way on her disobedience--and the trouble and annoyance she is giving us. Tell her we"re not going to stand any more of it."
"Very well."
He walked along the road at a fairly brisk pace until he came to the second stile, and then he stood hesitatingly. The firs grew thick here, and the shadows that they cast were dark and opaque, encroaching on the pathway, making it a narrow strip of dim light that would lead one into the mysterious and gloomy depths of the wood.
He crossed the stile, and went along the path very slowly, pausing now and then to listen. There was not a sound; the whole wood was as silent as the grave.
Presently the fir-trees on each side of him opened out a little, and here and there beeches and ashes appeared; then the path pa.s.sed through a glade, the shadows receded, and he had a sensation of being more free and able to breathe better. If he kept on by the path he would soon come to the main ride, that long widely cut avenue which goes close to Kibworth Rocks and gives access to the other straight cuts leading to the Abbey park. He left the path and struck across through the trees, making a line that would take him soon to the wildest part of the ancient Chase, and that, if he pursued it far enough, would eventually bring him out on the big ride near the rocks.
The dark stiff firs gave place to solemnly magnificent beeches; glade succeeded glade; thickets of holly and hawthorn dense as a savage jungle tried to baffle one"s approach to lawnlike s.p.a.ces where the gra.s.s grew finely as in a garden, and the white stems of the high trees looked like pillars of a splendid church; the stream ran silently and secretly, not flashing when it swept out under the sky, or murmuring when it slid down tiny cascades beneath the branches.
Dale was following the stream, whether it showed itself or hid itself, and could have found his way blindfold. He knew the wood by night as well as he knew it by day.
He stopped on the edge of the biggest of all the glades, looked about him cautiously, advanced slowly, and stopped again to wipe the perspiration from his forehead. He was very near to the main ride now; straight ahead of him, say two hundred yards away, on the other side of the invisible ride lay the invisible rocks.
One of the beech-trees had fallen, and been left as it fell two months ago. Most of its tender young foliage had shriveled and died, but on branches near its upturned roots a few leaves were bright and green, still drawing life from the ruined trunk. Dale stood by the fallen tree, looking out across the glade. It was all silent and beautiful, with that curious effect of increasing light which made the distances clearer every moment, gave more color to the earth and a more tender glow to the sky.
Then he saw her, a long way off, coming from the direction of the ride through the trees; and he felt the pressure of blood pumping into his head, the weight on his lungs, the laboring pain of his heart, that a man might feel just before he sinks to the ground in an apoplectic fit.
She was all alone, sauntering toward him with her hands full of flowers. She had no hat, and she was wearing the same loose frock that she wore last night.
With the gesture that had become habitual to him, Dale put his hands in his pockets--those wicked hands that no prison could much longer hold, that would defy control, that seemed now to be stretched forth across all the intervening s.p.a.ce to touch the face and limbs they hungered for. He moved away from the shadow by the fallen tree, stepped out into the open, went slowly to meet her, and his longing was intolerably acute. He was sick and mad with longing: he wanted her as a man dying of thirst wants the water that will save his life.
"Oh, Mr. Dale, how you hev made me jump!"
At sight of him she dropped the flowers and raised one of her hands to press it against her breast. She had been so startled that she still breathed fast, almost pantingly; but her lips were smiling, and her eyes shone with pleasure.
"Now look here, Norah; this won"t do--no, really this won"t do." He had taken his hands out of his pockets and clasped them behind his back. He too was breathing fast, though he spoke deliberately and rather thickly. "No, all this sort of thing won"t do; it can"t be allowed;" and he laid his right hand on her shoulder.
"I"m sorry," she said, watching his face intently.
"You mustn"t go and moon about by yourself, like this. You know you mustn"t, don"t you?"
"Yes, I know. But I couldn"t stay indoors."
He had slid his hand downward, and was holding her arm above the elbow. "It is very disobedient. Often and often Mrs. Dale has told you that you mustn"t come here."
"I know," she said humbly.
"So now, you see, I am sent to fetch you--and to tell you that you mustn"t do it." He was struggling hard to speak in his ordinary tone of voice, but failing. And his imitation of his usual fatherly manner, as he held her arm and led her along, was clumsy and laborious. He stopped moving when they reached the prostrate beech-tree, but continued to talk to her, saying the same things again and again.
"Norah, it can not be allowed. You mustn"t be disobedient. We can"t allow it."
They lingered by the tree, she looking at him all the time, and he scarcely ever looking at her, but glancing about him furtively. Then they sat down side by side on one of the great branches, and as if unconsciously he began to caress her.
"Is Mrs. Dale very angry with me?"
"Yes, Norah, she is angry. You can"t be surprised at that."
"Not so angry that she won"t never forgive me?"
"Oh, no, she"s not so angry as all that."
"But she isn"t fond of me, as she used to be."
"Yes, of course she is, Norah." His arm was round her waist, and he lifted her upon his lap, and held her there. "We are both very fond of you."