She looked at the red-stained crags. At last she said, "You seemed really contemptuous."
"Well, I a.s.sure you that I do not feel contemptuous. On the contrary, I am filled with admiration. Thank Heaven, I am a man of the world.
Whenever I meet heiresses I always have the deepest admiration." As he said this he wore a brave hang-dog expression. The girl surveyed him coldly from his chin to his eyebrows. "You have a handsome audacity, too."
He lay back in the long gra.s.s and contemplated the clouds.
"You should have been a Chinese soldier of fortune," she said.
He threw another little clod at Stanley and struck him on the head.
"You are the most scientifically unbearable person in the world," she said.
Stanley came back to see his master and to a.s.sure himself that the clump on the head was not intended as a sign of serious displeasure. Hawker took the dog"s long ears and tried to tie them into a knot.
"And I don"t see why you so delight in making people detest you," she continued.
Having failed to make a knot of the dog"s ears, Hawker leaned back and surveyed his failure admiringly. "Well, I don"t," he said.
"You do."
"No, I don"t."
"Yes, you do. You just say the most terrible things as if you positively enjoyed saying them."
"Well, what did I say, now? What did I say?"
"Why, you said that you always had the most extraordinary admiration for heiresses whenever you met them."
"Well, what"s wrong with that sentiment?" he said. "You can"t find fault with that!"
"It is utterly detestable."
"Not at all," he answered sullenly. "I consider it a tribute--a graceful tribute."
Miss Fanhall arose and went forward to the edge of the cliff. She became absorbed in the falls. Far below her a bough of a hemlock drooped to the water, and each swirling, mad wave caught it and made it nod--nod--nod.
Her back was half turned toward Hawker.
After a time Stanley, the dog, discovered some ants scurrying in the moss, and he at once began to watch them and wag his tail.
"Isn"t it curious," observed Hawker, "how an animal as large as a dog will sometimes be so entertained by the very smallest things?"
Stanley pawed gently at the moss, and then thrust his head forward to see what the ants did under the circ.u.mstances.
"In the hunting season," continued Hawker, having waited a moment, "this dog knows nothing on earth but his master and the partridges. He is lost to all other sound and movement. He moves through the woods like a steel machine. And when he scents the bird--ah, it is beautiful!
Shouldn"t you like to see him then?"
Some of the ants had perhaps made war-like motions, and Stanley was pretending that this was a reason for excitement. He reared aback, and made grumbling noises in his throat.
After another pause Hawker went on: "And now see the precious old fool!
He is deeply interested in the movements of the little ants, and as childish and ridiculous over them as if they were highly important.--There, you old blockhead, let them alone!"
Stanley could not be induced to end his investigations, and he told his master that the ants were the most thrilling and dramatic animals of his experience.
"Oh, by the way," said Hawker at last, as his glance caught upon the crags across the river, "did you ever hear the legend of those rocks yonder? Over there where I am pointing? Where I"m pointing? Did you ever hear it? What? Yes? No? Well, I shall tell it to you." He settled comfortably in the long gra.s.s.
CHAPTER VII.
"Once upon a time there was a beautiful Indian maiden, of course. And she was, of course, beloved by a youth from another tribe who was very handsome and stalwart and a mighty hunter, of course. But the maiden"s father was, of course, a stern old chief, and when the question of his daughter"s marriage came up, he, of course, declared that the maiden should be wedded only to a warrior of her tribe. And, of course, when the young man heard this he said that in such case he would, of course, fling himself headlong from that crag. The old chief was, of course, obdurate, and, of course, the youth did, of course, as he had said. And, of course, the maiden wept." After Hawker had waited for some time, he said with severity, "You seem to have no great appreciation of folklore."
The girl suddenly bent her head. "Listen," she said, "they"re calling.
Don"t you hear Hollie"s voice?"
They went to another place, and, looking down over the shimmering tree-tops, they saw Hollanden waving his arms. "It"s luncheon," said Hawker. "Look how frantic he is!"
The path required that Hawker should a.s.sist the girl very often. His eyes shone at her whenever he held forth his hand to help her down a blessed steep place. She seemed rather pensive. The route to luncheon was very long. Suddenly he took a seat on an old tree, and said: "Oh, I don"t know why it is, whenever I"m with you, I--I have no wits, nor good nature, nor anything. It"s the worst luck!"
He had left her standing on a boulder, where she was provisionally helpless. "Hurry!" she said; "they"re waiting for us."
Stanley, the setter, had been sliding down cautiously behind them. He now stood wagging his tail and waiting for the way to be cleared.
Hawker leaned his head on his hand and pondered dejectedly. "It"s the worst luck!"
"Hurry!" she said; "they"re waiting for us."
At luncheon the girl was for the most part silent. Hawker was superhumanly amiable. Somehow he gained the impression that they all quite fancied him, and it followed that being clever was very easy.
Hollanden listened, and approved him with a benign countenance.
There was a little boat fastened to the willows at the edge of the black pool. After the spread, Hollanden navigated various parties around to where they could hear the great hollow roar of the falls beating against the sheer rocks. Stanley swam after sticks at the request of little Roger.
Once Hollanden succeeded in making the others so engrossed in being amused that Hawker and Miss Fanhall were left alone staring at the white bubbles that floated solemnly on the black water. After Hawker had stared at them a sufficient time, he said, "Well, you are an heiress, you know."
In return she chose to smile radiantly. Turning toward him, she said, "If you will be good now--always--perhaps I"ll forgive you."
They drove home in the sombre shadows of the hills, with Stanley padding along under the wagon. The Worcester girls tried to induce Hollanden to sing, and in consequence there was quarrelling until the blinking lights of the inn appeared above them as if a great lantern hung there.
Hollanden conveyed his friend some distance on the way home from the inn to the farm. "Good time at the picnic?" said the writer.
"Yes."
"Picnics are mainly places where the jam gets on the dead leaves, and from thence to your trousers. But this was a good little picnic." He glanced at Hawker. "But you don"t look as if you had such a swell time."
Hawker waved his hand tragically. "Yes--no--I don"t know."
"What"s wrong with you?" asked Hollanden.