The Fontaine place was a long, low, white building facing a tumbling sea, and a stretch of burnt sea-sands. It had no architectural beauty, and yet it was a wonderfully picturesque place. Broad piazzas draped in vines ran all around the lower story, and the upper revealed itself only in white glimpses among dense ma.s.ses of foliage. And what did it matter that outside the place there were brown sand-hills and pale-sailed ships? A high hedge of myrtles hid it in a large garden full of the scents of the sun-burnt South--a garden of fragrant beauty, where one might dream idly all day long.
It was four o"clock in the afternoon of an August day, and every thing was still; only the _cicadas_ ran from hedge to hedge telling each other, in clear resonant voices, how hot it was. The house door stood open, but all the green jalousies were closed, and not a breath of air stirred the lace curtains hanging motionless before the windows.
The rooms, large and lofty, were in a dusky light, their atmosphere still and warm and heavy with the scent of flowers. On the back piazza half a dozen negro children were sleeping in all sorts of picturesque att.i.tudes, a bright mulatto women was dozing in a rocking-chair, and the cook, having "fixed" his dinner ready for the stove, had rolled himself in his blanket on the kitchen floor. Silence and dusk were every-where, the dwelling might have been an enchanted one, and life in it held in a trance.
In one of the upper rooms there was an occupant well calculated to carry out this idea. It was Phyllis, fast asleep upon a white couch, with both hands dropped toward the floor. But the sewing which had fallen from them, and the thimble still upon her finger, was guarantee for her mortality. And in a few minutes she opened her soft, dark eyes, and smiled at her vacant hands. Then she glanced at the windows; the curtains were beginning to stir, the gulf breeze had sprung up, the birds were twittering, and the house awakening.
But it was pleasant to be quiet and think in such an indolent mood; and Phyllis had some reasons for finding the "thinking" engrossing.
First, she had had a letter from Elizabeth, and it was in a very hopeful tone. Antony and George Eltham were doing very well, and, as Lord Eltham had become quietly interested in the firm, the squire felt more easy as to its final success. Second, Mr. North was leaving Hallam, his term there had expired, and the Conference, which would determine his next movement, was then sitting. Her thoughts were drifting on these two topics when a woman softly entered the room. She looked at Phyllis"s closed eyes, and with a smile went here and there laying out clean white muslins, and knots of pink ribbons, and all the pretty accessories of a young maiden"s evening toilet.
"Thar now, Miss Phill! I"se ready--and I "spects thar"s some good news for you, honey!"
Phyllis opened her eyes. "I heard you, Harriet. I was not asleep. As for good news, I think you are always expecting it--besides, I had some to-day."
"Dat"s de reason,--Miss Phill--"whar you going good news? Jest whar I"se been afore." Dat"s de way. I reckon I knows "bout it."
"What makes you know this time, Harriet? Has the postman been, or a bird whispered it to you, or have some of Waul"s servants been making a call here?"
"I don"t "ceive any of de Waul"s servants, Miss Phill. I"se not wanting my char"ctar hung on ebery tree top in de county. No, I draws my s"picions in de properest way. Ma.s.s"r Richard git a letter dis morning. Did he tell you, Miss Phill?"
"I have not seen him since breakfast."
"I thought he"d kind ob hold back "bout dat letter. I knows dat letter from Ma.s.s"r John. I"se sure ob it."
"Did you look--at the outside of it, I mean--Harriet?"
"No, Miss Phill, I didn"t look neider at de outside, nor de inside; I"s not dat kind; I look at Ma.s.s"r Richard"s face. Bless you, Miss Phill! Ma.s.s"r Richard kaint hide nothing. If he was in love Harriet would know it, quick as a flash--"
"I think not, Harriet."
"Den I tell you something, Miss Phill. Ma.s.s"r Richard been in love eber since he come back from ober de Atterlantic Ocean. P"raps you don"t know, but I done found him out."
Phyllis laughed.
"I tell you how I knows it. Ma.s.s"r Richard allays on de lookout for de postman; and he gits a heap ob dem bluish letters wid a lady"s face in de corner."
"That is Queen Victoria"s face. You don"t suppose Master Richard is in love with Queen Victoria?"
"Miss Phill, de Fontaines would fall in love wid de moon, and think dey pay her a compliment--dey mighty proud fambly, de Fontaines; but I"se no such fool as not to know de lady"s head am worth so many cents to carry de letter. But, Miss Phill, who sends de letters? Dat am de question."
"Of course, that would decide it."
"Den when Ma.s.s"r Richard gits one of dem letters, he sits so quiet-like, thinking and smiling to himself, and ef you speak to him, he answers you kind ob far-away, and gentle. I done tried him often. But he didn"t look like dat at all when he git de letter dis morning.
Ma.s.s"r Richard got powerful high temper, Miss Phill."
"Then take care and not anger him, Harriet."
"You see, when I bring in de letter, I bring in wid me some fresh myrtles and de tube roses for de vases, and as I put dem in, and fixed up de chimley-piece, I noticed Ma.s.s"r Richard through de looking-gla.s.s--and he bit his lips, and he drew his brows together, and he crush"d de letter up in his hand."
"Harriet, you have no right to watch your master. It is a very mean thing to do."
"Me watch Ma.s.s"r Richard! Now, Miss Phill, I"se none ob dat kind! But I kaint shut my eyes, "specially when I"se "tending to de flower vases."
"You could have left the vases just at that time."
"No, Miss Phill, I"se very partic"lar "bout de vases. Dey has to be "tended to. You done told me ober and ober to hab a time for ebery thing, and de time for de vases was jist den."
"Then, the next time you see Master Richard through the gla.s.s, tell him so, Harriet; that is only fair, you know."
"Go "way, Miss Phill! I"se got more sense dan tell Ma.s.s"r Richard any sich thing."
Phyllis did not answer; she was thinking of a decision she might be compelled to make, and the question was one which touched her very nearly on very opposite sides. She loved her brother with all her heart. Their lives had been spent together, for Phyllis had been left to his guardianship when very young, and had learned to give him an affection which had something in it of the clinging reliance of the child, as well as of the proud regard of the sister. But John Millard she loved, as women love but once. He was related by marriage to the Fontaines, and had, when Phyllis and Richard were children, spent much of his time at the Fontaine place.
But even as boys Richard and John had not agreed. To ask "why" is to ask a question which in such cases is never fully answered. It is easy to say that Richard was jealous of his sister, and jealous of John"s superiority in athletic games, and that John spoke sneeringly of Richard"s aristocratic airs, and finer gentleman ways; but there was something deeper than these things, a natural antipathy, for which there seemed to be no reason, and for which there was no cure but the compelling power of a divine love.
John Millard had been for two years on the frontier, and there had been very meager and irregular news from him. If any one had asked Richard, "Are you really hoping that he has been killed in some Indian fight?" Richard would have indignantly denied it; and yet he knew that if such a fate had come to his cousin Millard, he would not have been sorry. And now the man with the easy confidence of a soldier who is accustomed to make his own welcome, wrote to say "that he was coming to New Orleans, and hoped to spend a good deal of his time with them."
The information was most unwelcome to Richard. He was not anxious for his sister to marry; least of all, to marry a frontier settler. He could not endure the thought of Phyllis roughing life in some log-cabin on the San Marino. That was at least the aspect in which he put the question to himself. He meant that he could not endure that John Millard should at the last get the better of him about his own sister.
And when he put his foot down pa.s.sionately, and said, between his closed teeth, "He shall not do it!" it was the latter thought he answered.
He felt half angry at Phyllis for being so lovely when she sat down opposite him at dinner time. And there was an unusual light in her eyes and an indescribable elation in her manner which betrayed her knowledge of the coming event to him.
"Phyllis," he asked, suddenly, "who told you John Millard was coming?"
"Harriet told me you had a letter from him this morning."
"Confound--"
"Richard!"
"I beg your pardon, Phyllis. Be so good as to keep Harriet out of my way. Yes; I had a letter--a most impertinent one, I think. Civilized human beings usually wait for an invitation."
"Unless they imagine themselves going to a home."
"Home?"
"Yes. I think this is, in some sense, John"s home. Mother always made him welcome to it. Dear Richard, if it is foolish to meet troubles, it is far more foolish to meet quarrels."
"I do not wish to quarrel, Phyllis; if John does not talk to you as he ought not to talk. He ought to have more modesty than to ask you to share such a home as he can offer you."
"Richard, dear, you are in a bad way. There is a trustees" meeting to-night, and they are in trouble about dollars and cents; I would go, if I were you."
"And have to help the deficiency?"
"Yes; when a man has been feeling unkindly, and talking unkindly, the best of all atonements is to do a good deed."
"O, Phyllis! Phyllis!"
"Yes, Richard; and you will see the Bishop there, very likely; and you can tell the good old man what is in your heart, and I know what he will say. "It is but fair and square, son Richard, to treat a man kindly till he does you some wrong which deserves unkindness." He will say, "Son Richard, if you have not the proofs upon which to blame a man, don"t blame him upon likelihoods.""