"Oh, yes," said Ralph, laughing, "and besides that I have had all sorts of good fortune. For instance, one of my hens, setting unbeknown to anybody in a warm corner of the barn, has hatched out a dozen little chicks. Think of that at this season! I have put them in a warm room, and by the time we begin housekeeping we shall have spring chickens to eat before anybody else. And then there is that black colt, Dom Pedro. I had great doubts about him, because he showed such decided symptoms of free will, but now he is behaving beautifully. He has become thoroughly reconciled to a haycart. I have driven him in a light wagon with his sister, and he is just as good as she is, and yesterday I drove him single, and find that he has made up his mind to learn everything I can teach him. Now isn"t that a fine thing?"
"Oh, yes," said Miss Panney, "it must be such things as those that make your eyes sparkle! But of course it warms your heart to give her delicate eating when she first comes to you, and to have a fine pair of horses for her to drive behind. If your face beams as it does now while she is away, it will serve as an electric light when she comes back. Good fortune! Oh, yes, of course, you consider that you have it in full measure. But we are sometimes apt to look on our friends" good fortune in an odd way. Now, if I had wanted you to go to Boston to get rich, and instead of that you had insisted on going to Nantucket, and had become rich there, I suppose that I should have been satisfied as long as you were prosperous, but I do not believe I would have been; at least, not entirely so. In this world we do want people to do what we think they ought to do."
"Yes," said Ralph, knowingly, "I see. But now, Miss Panney, don"t you really think that Boston would have been too rich a place for me? That it would have expected too much of me, and that perhaps it would have done too much for me? Boston is a good enough place, but if you only knew how much lovelier Nantucket is--"
"Stop, stop, boy!" said the old lady. "I am getting so old now, that I am obliged to stop happy people and disappointed people from talking to me.
If I listened to all they had to say, I should have no time for anything else. By the way, have you heard any news from the Bannister family? That sedate Herbert is going to be married, and he intends to live with his wife in the Bannister mansion."
"And how will his sister like that?" asked Ralph.
"She won"t like it at all. She has told me she is going away."
"I am sorry for that," he said. "That is too bad."
"Not at all. She could not do better. A girl like that in a town such as Thorbury, with n.o.body to marry her but the rector, is as much out of place as a canary bird in a poultry yard. I have advised her to visit her relatives in town, and go with them to Europe, where I hope she will marry a prince. Good conscience! Look at her! Imagine that girl in a sweeping velvet robe with one great diamond blazing on her breast."
Ralph turned quickly, and as his eyes fell upon Dora, as she entered the store, it struck him that no royal gowns could make her more beautiful than she was at that moment.
"Now, my dear," said Miss Panney, "what did you come here for? Do you want a saw or a pitchfork?"
"I came," said Dora, with her most charming smile, "because I saw you two in here, and I wanted to speak to you. It is a funny place for this sort of thing, but I do not see either of you very often, now, and I thought I would like to tell you, before you heard it from any one else, of my engagement."
"To whom?" cried Miss Panney, in a voice that made the ox-chains rattle.
Dora looked around anxiously, but there was no one in the front part of the store.
"To Mr. Ames," she replied.
"The rector!" exclaimed Ralph.
"Yes," said Dora; "I want to write to Miriam about it, and do you know I have lost her address."
"Dora Bannister," interrupted Miss Panney, "it may be a little early to make bridal presents, but I want to give you this corkscrew. It is a very good one, and I think that after a while you will have need of it.
Good morning."
When the old lady had abruptly departed, the two young people laughed, and Ralph offered his congratulations.
"I do not know Mr. Ames very well," he said, "but I have heard no end of good of him. But this is very surprising. It seems--"
"Seems what?" asked Dora.
"Well, since you ask me," Ralph answered, hesitating a little, "it seems odd, not, perhaps, that you should marry the rector, but that you should marry anybody. You appear to me too young to marry."
"Oh, indeed!" said Dora; "you think that?"
"I do not know that you understand me," said Ralph, "but I mean that you are so full of youth--and all that, and enjoy life so much, that it is a pity that you should not have more of youthful enjoyment before you begin any other kind."
Dora laughed.
"Truly," said she, "I never looked at the matter in that light. Perhaps I ought to have done so. You think me too young, and if you had had a chance, perhaps you would have warned me! You are so kind and so considerate, but don"t you think you ought to speak to Mr. Ames about it?
He does not know you very well, but he has heard no end of good of you, and perhaps what you say might make him reflect."
As she spoke she looked at him with her eyes not quite so wide open as usual. Ralph returned her gaze steadfastly.
"I know what you are thinking of," he said. "You are thinking of a fable with an animal in it and some fruit, and the animal was a small one, and the fruit was on a high trellis."
"Oh, dear," said Dora. "It must be very nice to have read as much as you have, and to know fables and all sorts of things to refer to. But my life hasn"t been long enough for all that."
The more Ralph"s mind dwelt upon the matter, the more dissatisfied did he feel that this beautiful young creature should marry the rector. If, in truth, she applied the fable to him, this was all the more reason why he should feel sorry for her. If anything of all this showed itself in his eyes, he did not know it, but Dora"s eyes opened to their full width, and grew softer.
"I expect I surprise you," she said, "by talking to you of these things, but I have so few friends to confide in. Herbert is wrapped up in his own engagement, and Mrs. Bannister is entirely apart from me. Almost ever since I have known you two, I have felt that Miriam and you were friends with whom I could talk freely, and I am now going to tell you, and I know you will never mention it, that I do not believe I shall ever marry Mr. Ames."
"What!" exclaimed Ralph. "Didn"t you say you were engaged to him?"
"Of course I said so; and I am, and I was very glad to be able to say it to Miss Panney, for she is always bothering me about such things; but the engagement is a peculiar one. Mr. Ames has been coming to see me for a long time, and I think it was because he heard that I was planning to go away that he decided to declare himself at once, before he lost his opportunity. I told him that I had never thought of anything of the sort; but he was very insistent, and at last I consented, provided the engagement should be a long one, and that, if after I had seen more of the world and knew myself better, I should decide to change my mind, I must be allowed to do so. He fought terribly against this, but there was nothing for him to do but agree, and so now we are engaged on approbation, as it were. This is a great relief to me in various ways, because I feel as if I were safely anch.o.r.ed, and not drifting about whichever way the wind blows, while other people are sailing where they want to; and yet, whenever I please, I can loosen my anchor, and spread my sails, and skim away over the beautiful sea."
It is seldom that a siren, leaning lightly against a bright new hay-cutter, with a background of iron rakes and hoes and spades, sings her soft song. But it was so now, and Dora, her heart beating quickly, looked from under her long lashes to note the effect of her words.
"If he will drop the little Drane," she said to herself, "I will drop the rector."
But Ralph stood looking past her. It was as plain as could be that he was not approaching the rocks; that he did not like the song; and that he was thinking what he should say about it.
"Oh, dear," said Dora, suddenly starting. "I have ever so much to do this morning, and it must be nearly noon. I wonder what made that queer Miss Panney think of giving me this corkscrew."
Ralph knew very well that the old lady meant the little implement as a figurative auxiliary of consolation, but he merely remarked that Miss Panney did and gave very queer things. He opened the door for her, and she bade him good-by and went out.
She crossed the street, and when on the opposite sidewalk, she turned her luminous eyes back upon the gla.s.s doors she had pa.s.sed through.
But there was no one looking out after her. Ralph was standing at the counter, buying nails.
CHAPTER XLIV
LA FLEUR"S SOUL REVELS, AND MISS PANNEY PREPARES TO MAKE A FIRE
Cobhurst never looked more lovely than in the early June of the following year. With the beauty of the trees, the gra.s.s, the flowers, the vines, and all things natural, it possessed the added attractiveness of a certain personal equation. To all the happy dwellers therein, the dear old house appeared like one in which good people had always lived.
Although they used to think that it was as charming as could be, they now perceived that the old mansion and all its surroundings had shown strong evidences of that system of management which Mike called ramshackle. No one said a word against any of the changes that Ralph had made, for in spite of them Cobhurst was still Cobhurst.
On a bench under a tree by the side of the house sat La Fleur, sh.e.l.ling some early spring peas, a tin basin of which she held in her lap. Mrs.
Drane, in a rustic chair near by, was sewing, and Miriam, who had come laden with blossoms from the orchard, had stopped in the pleasant shade.
Mike, absolutely picturesque in a broad new straw hat, was out in the sunshine raking some gra.s.s he had cut, and Seraphina, who remained in the household as general a.s.sistant, could be seen through the open window of the kitchen.
"As I told you before, madam," said La Fleur, "I don"t think you need feel the least fear about the young horses. Their master has a steady hand, and they know his voice, and as for Mrs. Haverley, she"s no more afraid of them than if they were two sheep. As they drove off this afternoon, I had a feeling as if I were living with some of those great families in the old country in whose service I have been. For, said I to myself, "Here is the young master of the house, actually going to drive out with his handsome wife and his spirited horses, and that in the very middle of the working day, and without the prospect of making a penny of profit." You don"t see that often in this country, except, perhaps, among the very, very rich who don"t have to work. But it is a good sign when a gentleman like Mr. Haverley sets such an upper-toned example to his fellow young men.
"I spoke of that to Dr. Tolbridge once. "Begging your pardon, sir," said I, "it seems to me that you never drive out except when you have to."
"Which is true," said he, "because I have to do it so much." "You will excuse me, sir, for saying so," said I, "but if you did things for pleasure sometimes, your mind would be rested, and you would feel more like comprehending the deliciousness of some of my special dishes, which I notice you now and again say nothing about, because you are so hungry when you eat them, you don"t notice their savoriness.""