So Sally stayed--to have one of those long night-talks in which girls delight, in the course of which all sorts of intimacies and confidences, that shun the daylight, open like the night-blooming cereus in strange successions. One often wonders by daylight at the things one says very naturally in the dark.
So the two girls talked about Moses, and Sally dilated upon his handsome, manly air the one Sunday that he had appeared in Harpswell meeting-house.
"He didn"t know me at all, if you"ll believe it," said Sally. "I was standing with father when he came out, and he shook hands with him, and looked at me as if I"d been an entire stranger."
"I"m not in the least surprised," said Mara; "you"re grown so and altered."
"Well, now, you"d hardly know him, Mara," said Sally. "He is a man--a real man; everything about him is different; he holds up his head in such a proud way. Well, he always did that when he was a boy; but when he speaks, he has such a deep voice! How boys do alter in a year or two!"
"Do you think I have altered much, Sally?" said Mara; "at least, do you think _he_ would think so?"
"Why, Mara, you and I have been together so much, I can"t tell. We don"t notice what goes on before us every day. I really should like to see what Moses Pennel will think when he sees you. At any rate, he can"t order you about with such a grand air as he used to when you were younger."
"I think sometimes he has quite forgotten about me," said Mara.
"Well, if I were you, I should put him in mind of myself by one or two little ways," said Sally. "I"d plague him and tease him. I"d lead him such a life that he couldn"t forget me,--that"s what I would."
"I don"t doubt you would, Sally; and he might like you all the better for it. But you know that sort of thing isn"t my way. People must act in character."
"Do you know, Mara," said Sally, "I always thought Moses was hateful in his treatment of you? Now I"d no more marry that fellow than I"d walk into the fire; but it would be a just punishment for his sins to have to marry me! Wouldn"t I serve him out, though!"
With which threat of vengeance on her mind Sally Kittridge fell asleep, while Mara lay awake pondering,--wondering if Moses would come to-morrow, and what he would be like if he did come.
The next morning as the two girls were wiping breakfast dishes in a room adjoining the kitchen, a step was heard on the kitchen-floor, and the first that Mara knew she found herself lifted from the floor in the arms of a tall dark-eyed young man, who was kissing her just as if he had a right to. She knew it must be Moses, but it seemed strange as a dream, for all she had tried to imagine it beforehand.
He kissed her over and over, and then holding her off at arm"s length, said, "Why, Mara, you have grown to be a beauty!"
"And what was she, I"d like to know, when you went away, Mr. Moses?"
said Sally, who could not long keep out of a conversation. "She was handsome when you were only a great ugly boy."
"Thank you, Miss Sally!" said Moses, making a profound bow.
"Thank me for what?" said Sally, with a toss.
"For your intimation that I am a handsome young man now," said Moses, sitting with his arm around Mara, and her hand in his.
And in truth he was as handsome now for a man as he was in the promise of his early childhood. All the oafishness and surly awkwardness of the half-boy period was gone. His great black eyes were clear and confident: his dark hair cl.u.s.tering in short curls round his well-shaped head; his black lashes, and fine form, and a certain confident ease of manner, set him off to the greatest advantage.
Mara felt a peculiar dreamy sense of strangeness at this brother who was not a brother,--this Moses so different from the one she had known. The very tone of his voice, which when he left had the uncertain cracked notes which indicate the unformed man, were now mellowed and settled.
Mara regarded him shyly as he talked, blushed uneasily, and drew away from his arm around her, as if this handsome, self-confident young man were being too familiar. In fact, she made apology to go out into the other room to call Mrs. Pennel.
Moses looked after her as she went with admiration. "What a little woman she has grown!" he said, navely.
"And what did you expect she would grow?" said Sally. "You didn"t expect to find her a girl in short clothes, did you?"
"Not exactly, Miss Sally," said Moses, turning his attention to her; "and some other people are changed too."
"Like enough," said Sally, carelessly. "I should think so, since somebody never spoke a word to one the Sunday he was at meeting."
"Oh, you remember that, do you? On my word, Sally"--
"Miss Kittridge, if you please, sir," said Sally, turning round with the air of an empress.
"Well, then, Miss Kittridge," said Moses, making a bow; "now let me finish my sentence. I never dreamed who you were."
"Complimentary," said Sally, pouting.
"Well, hear me through," said Moses; "you had grown so handsome, Miss Kittridge."
"Oh! that indeed! I suppose you mean to say I was a fright when you left?"
"Not at all--not at all," said Moses; "but handsome things may grow handsomer, you know."
"I don"t like flattery," said Sally.
"I never flatter, Miss Kittridge," said Moses.
Our young gentleman and young lady of Orr"s Island went through with this customary little lie of civilized society with as much gravity as if they were practicing in the court of Versailles,--she looking out from the corner of her eye to watch the effect of her words, and he laying his hand on his heart in the most edifying gravity. They perfectly understood one another.
But, says the reader, seems to me Sally Kittridge does all the talking!
So she does,--so she always will,--for it is her nature to be bright, noisy, and restless; and one of these girls always overcrows a timid and thoughtful one, and makes her, for the time, seem dim and faded, as does rose color when put beside scarlet.
Sally was a born coquette. It was as natural for her to want to flirt with every man she saw, as for a kitten to scamper after a pin-ball.
Does the kitten care a fig for the pin-ball, or the dry leaves, which she whisks, and frisks, and boxes, and pats, and races round and round after? No; it"s nothing but kittenhood; every hair of her fur is alive with it. Her sleepy green eyes, when she pretends to be dozing, are full of it; and though she looks wise a moment, and seems resolved to be a discreet young cat, let but a leaf sway--off she goes again, with a frisk and a rap. So, though Sally had scolded and flounced about Moses"s inattention to Mara in advance, she contrived even in this first interview to keep him talking with n.o.body but herself;--not because she wanted to draw him from Mara, or meant to; not because she cared a pin for him; but because it was her nature, as a frisky young cat. And Moses let himself be drawn, between bantering and contradicting, and jest and earnest, at some moments almost to forget that Mara was in the room.
She took her sewing and sat with a pleased smile, sometimes breaking into the lively flow of conversation, or eagerly appealed to by both parties to settle some rising quarrel.
Once, as they were talking, Moses looked up and saw Mara"s head, as a stray sunbeam falling upon the golden hair seemed to make a halo around her face. Her large eyes were fixed upon him with an expression so intense and penetrative, that he felt a sort of wincing uneasiness.
"What makes you look at me so, Mara?" he said, suddenly.
A bright flush came in her cheek as she answered, "I didn"t know I was looking. It all seems so strange to me. I am trying to make out who and what you are."
"It"s not best to look too deep," Moses said, laughing, but with a slight shade of uneasiness.
When Sally, late in the afternoon, declared that she must go home, she couldn"t stay another minute, Moses rose to go with her.
"What are you getting up for?" she said to Moses, as he took his hat.
"To go home with you, to be sure."
"n.o.body asked you to," said Sally.
"I"m accustomed to asking myself," said Moses.
"Well, I suppose I must have you along," said Sally. "Father will be glad to see you, of course."
"You"ll be back to tea, Moses," said Mara, "will you not? Grandfather will be home, and want to see you."