She looked at Amos; he was very still, evidently asleep, yet unnaturally so, for the regular breathing of unconsciousness was not there and the firelight shadows made him look pinched and strange.
Suddenly she felt alone and panic stricken; she forgot the tests so well known to her of pulse taking, and all the countryside tales of strokes and seizures came back to her. She did not hesitate a moment; a man was in the same house and she felt entirely outside of the strength of her own will.
Going to the separating door, she found it locked, on which side she could not be sure; but seeing a long key hanging by the clock she tried it, on general principles. It turned hard, and the lock finally yielded with a percussive snap. Stepping into the hall, she saw a light in the front of the house, toward which she hurried. _The Man_ was seated by a table that was strewn with books, papers, and draughting instruments; he was not working, but in his turn gazing at the flames from a smouldering hearth fire, though his coat was off and the window open, for it was not cold but merely chilly.
Hearing her step, he started, turned, and, as he saw her upon the threshold, made a grab for his coat and swung it into place. It is strange, this instinct in civilized man of not appearing coatless before a woman he respects.
"Amos Opie is very ill, I"m afraid," she said gravely, without the least self-consciousness or thought of intrusion.
"Shall I go for the doctor?" said _The Man_, reaching for his hat and at the same time opening the long cupboard by the chimney, from which he took a leather-covered flask.
"No, not yet; please come and look at him. Yes, I want you very much!"
This in answer to a questioning look in his eyes.
Standing together by the bed, they saw the old man"s eyelids quiver and then open narrowly. _The Man_ poured whiskey from his flask into a gla.s.s, added water, and held it to Amos"s lips, where it was quickly and completely absorbed!
Next he put a finger on Amos"s pulse and after a minute closed his watch with a snap, but without comment.
"You feel better now, Opie?" he questioned presently in a tone that, to the old man at least, was significant.
"What gave you this turn? Is there anything on your mind? You might as well tell now, as you will have to sooner or later, and Miss Maxwell must go home presently. You"ll have to put up with me for the rest of the night and a man isn"t as cheerful a companion as a woman--is he, Amos?"
"No, yer right there, Mr. Blake, and it"s the idee o" loneliness that"s upsettin" me! Come down ter facts, Mr. Blake, it"s the offers I"ve had fer the farm--yourn and hern--and my wishin" ter favour both and yet not give it up myself, and the whole"s too much fer me!"
"Hers! Has Miss Maxwell made a bid for the farm? What do you want it for?" he said, turning quickly to Maria, who coloured and then replied quietly--"To live in! which is exactly what you said when I asked you a similar question a couple of months ago!"
"The p"int is," continued Amos, quickly growing more wide awake, and addressing the ceiling as a neutral and impartial listener, "that Mr.
Blake has offered me five hundred more than Maria Maxwell, and though I want ter favour her (in buyin", property goes to the highest bidder; it"s only contract work that"s fetched by the lowest, and I never did work by contract--it"s too darned frettin"), I can"t throw away good money, and neither of "em yet knows that whichsomever of "em buys it has got ter give me a life right ter live in the summer kitchen and fetch my drinkin" water from the well in the porch! A lone widder man"s a sight helplesser "n a widder, but yet he don"t get no sympathy!"
_The Man from Everywhere_ began to laugh, and catching Maria"s eye she joined him heartily. "How do you mean to manage?" he asked in a way that barred all thought of intrusion.
"I"m going to have a flower farm and take in two invalids--no, not cranks or lunatics, but merely tired people," she added, a little catch coming in her voice.
"Then you had better begin with me, for I"m precious tired of taking care of myself, and here is Amos also applying, so I do not see but what your establishment is already complete!"
Then, as he saw by her face that the subject was not one for jest, he said, in his hearty way that Mary Penrose likes, "Why not let me buy the place, as mine was the first offer, put it in order, and then lease it to you for three years, with the privilege of buying if you find that your scheme succeeds? If the house is too small to allow two lone men a room each, I can add a lean-to to match Opie"s summer kitchen, for you know sometimes a woman finds it comfortable to have a man in the house!"
Maria did not answer at first, but was looking at the one uncurtained window, where the firelight again made opals of the panes. Then turning, she said, "I will think over your offer, Mr. Blake, if everything may be upon a strictly business basis. But how about Amos? He seems better, and I ought to be going. I do not know why I should have been so foolish, but for a moment he did not seem to breathe, and I thought it was a stroke."
"I"m comin" too all in good time, now my mind"s relieved," replied the old man, with a chuckle, "and I think I"ll weather to-night fer the sake o" fixin" that deed termorrow, Mr. Blake, if you"ll kindly give me jest a thimbleful more o" that old liquor o" yourn--I kin manage it fust rate without the water, thank "ee!"
_The Man_ followed Maria to the door and out into the night. He did not ask her if he might go with her--he simply walked by her side for once unquestioned.
Maria spoke first, and rather more quickly and nervously than usual: "I suppose you think that my scheme in wishing the farm is a madcap one, but I"m sure I could not see why you should wish to own it!"
"Yes and no! I can well understand why you should desire a broader, freer life than your vocation allows, but--well, as for reading women"s motives, I have given that up long since; it often leads to trouble though I have never lost my interest in them.
"I think Amos Opie will revive, now that his mind is settled" (if it had been sufficiently light, Maria would have seen an expression upon _The Man"s_ face indicative of his belief that the recent attack of illness was not quite motiveless, even though he forgave the ruse). "In a few days, when the deeds are drawn, will you not, as my prospective tenant, come and look over the house by daylight and tell me what changes would best suit your purpose, so that I may make some plans? I imagine that Amos revived will be able to do much of the work himself with a good a.s.sistant.
"When would you like the lease to begin? In May? It is a pity that you could not be here in the interval to overlook it all, for the pasture should be ploughed at once for next year"s gardening."
"May will be late; best put it at the first of March. As to overseeing, I shall not be far away. I"m thinking of accepting cousin Mary"s offer to stay with her and teach the Infant and a couple of other children this winter, which may be well for superintending the work, as I suppose you are off again with the swallows, as usual."
"Oh, no, you forget the reservoir and the tunnelling of Three Brothers for the aqueduct to Bridgeton!"
"Then let it be March first!" said Maria, after hesitating a moment, during which she stood looking back at Opal Farm lying at peace in the moonlight; "only, in making the improvements, please do them as if for any one else, and remember that it is to be a strictly business affair!"
"And why should you think that I would deal otherwise by you?" _The Man_ said quickly, stepping close, where he could see the expression of her face.
Maria, feeling herself cornered, did not answer immediately, and half turned her face away,--only for a moment, however. Facing him, she said, "Because men of your stamp are always good to women,--always doing them kindnesses both big and little (ask Mary Penrose),--and sometimes kindness hurts!"
"Well, then, the lease and all pertaining to it shall be strictly in the line of business until you yourself ask for a modification,--but be careful, I may be a hard landlord!" Then, dropping his guard, he said suddenly, "Why is it that you and I--man and woman--temperamentally alike, both interested in the same things, and of an age to know what in life is worth while, should stand so aloof? Is there no more human basis upon which I can persuade you to come to Opal Farm when it is mine? Give me a month, three months,--lessen the distance you always keep between us, and give me leave to convince you! Why will you insist upon deliberately keeping up a barrier raised in the beginning when I was too stupidly at home in your cousin"s house to see that I might embarra.s.s you? Frankly, do you dislike me?"
Maria began two different sentences, stumbled, and stopped short; then drawing herself up and looking _The Man_ straight in the face, she said, "I have kept a barrier between us, and deliberately, as you say, but--"
here she faltered--"it was because I found you too interesting; the barrier was to protect my own peace of mind more than to rebuff you."
"Then I may try to convince you that my plan is best?"
"Yes," said Maria, with a glint of her mischievous smile, "if you have plenty of time to spare."
"And you will give me no more encouragement than this? No good wish or omen?"
"Yes," said Maria again, "I wish that you may succeed--" here she slipped her hand in the belt of her gown and drew out a little chamois bag attached to her watch, "and for an omen, here is the opal you gave me--you give it a happy interpretation and one is very apt to lose an unset stone, you know!"
But as neither walls nor leaves have tongues, Mary Penrose never learned the real ins and outs of this matter.
XVIII
THE VALUE OF WHITE FLOWERS
(Barbara Campbell to Mary Penrose)
_Oaklands, September 29._ Michaelmas. The birthdays of our commuters are not far apart. This being Evan"s festival, we have eaten the annual goose in his honour, together with several highly indigestible old-country dishes of Martha Corkle"s construction, for she comes down from the cottage to preside over this annual feast. Now the boys have challenged Evan to a "golf walk" over the Bluffs and back again, the rough-and-ready course extending that distance, and I, being "o"er weel dined," have curled up in the garden-overlook window of my room to write to you.
It has been a good gardener"s year, and I am sorry that the fall anemones and the blooming of the earliest chrysanthemums insist upon telling me that it is nearly over,--that is, as far as the reign of complete garden colour is concerned. And amid our vagrant summer wanderings among gardens of high or low degree, no one point has been so recurrent or interesting as the distribution of colour, and especially the dominance of white flowers in any landscape or garden in which they appear.
In your last letter you speak of the preponderance of white among the flowering shrubs as well as the early blossoms of spring. That this is the case is one of the strong points in the decorative value of shrubs, and in listing seeds for the hardy or summer beds or sorting the bushes for the rosary, great care should be taken to have a liberal sprinkling of white, for the white in the flower kingdom is what the diamond is in the mineral world, necessary as a setting for all other colours, as well as for its own intrinsic worth.
Look at a well-cut sapphire of flawless tint. It is beautiful surely, but in some way its depth of colour needs illumination. Surround it with evenly matched diamonds and at once life enters into it.
Fill a tall jar with spires of larkspur of the purest blue known to garden flowers. Unless the sun shines fully on them they seem to swallow light; mingle with them some stalks of white foxgloves, Canterbury bells, or surround them with Madonna lilies, a fringe of spirea, or the slender _Deutzia gracilis_, more frequently seen in florists" windows than in the garden, and a new meaning is given the blue flower; the black shadows disappear from its depth and sky reflections replace them.
The blue-fringed gentian, growing deep among the dark gra.s.ses of low meadows, may be pa.s.sed over without enthusiasm as a dull purplish flower by one to whom its possibilities are unknown; but come upon it backgrounded by Michaelmas daisies or standing alone in a meadow thick strewn with the white stars of gra.s.s of Parna.s.sus or wands of crystal ladies" tresses, and all at once it becomes,--
"Blue, blue, as if the sky let fall A flower from its cerulean wall!"