"There were windows in three rows," read Cyclona, "and light was against light in three ranks."
"Lights!" exclaimed Seth, "little electric lights tricked out with fancy globes of rose colah matching the roses in her cheeks."
He dropped his pencil and gazed ahead of him.
"Do you know?" he asked dreamily, "how I shall match that rose color of her cheek, not havin" her by? I shall taik the innah petal of a rose and maik the little lights the color of that."
Cyclona arose and walked over to a bit of gla.s.s that hung on the wall.
She frowned at the reflection of her brown cheek there. A tender and delicate rose underlay the brown, but her eyes saw no beauty in it.
She sighed as she came back and once more sat down.
"I shall have the beautiful house agleam with lights," went on Seth, who had failed to notice the interruption. "Lights at the sight of which Solomon would have stood aghast, that splendid ole aristocrat whose mos" magnificent temples were dimly lit by candles.... Windows in three rows! Windows in a dozen rows out of which her blue eyes shall look on smooth green swahds and flowahs.
"The house shall gleam alight with windows. Theah shall be no da"k spot in it. Windowless houses ah fo" creatuahs of a clay less fine than hers," repeating tenderly, "of less fine clay. She is a bein"
created to bask in the sunshine. She shall bask in it. These windows shall be thrown wide open to the sun, upstaiahs and down. Not a speck nor spot shall mah their cleanliness, lest a ray of light escape.
Those who live in da"kness wilt within and without. She shall not live in da"kness. Nevah again. Nevah again shall she live in a hole in the ground."
After a time:
"Is it possible?" he mused, half to himself, half to Cyclona, "to build a house without a cellah?"
"I don"t know," said Cyclona, whose knowledge of houses was limited to her own whose roof was still upside down, and dugouts.
"If I could build this house without a cellah," said Seth, "I would."
Cyclona again read from the Book.
"It stood upon twelve oxen," she read, "three looking toward the north, and three looking toward the west and three looking toward the south and three looking toward the east. Why not stand it on oxen like that, Seth?" she questioned.
Seth laughed.
"That wasn"t the house," said he. "That was the molten sea."
"Oh!" exclaimed Cyclona. "I know now. The foundation was of stone made ready before they were brought hither, costly stones, great stones. It must have a foundation of some sort," she argued, keeping her finger on the place as she looked up, "or it will blow away."
"Of co"se," a.s.sented Seth, "or it will blow away. Well, if it must it must; but we will put half-windows into that cellah so it won"t be da"k, so it won"t be like this, a hole in the ground. We will light it with electrics. But we won"t talk of the cellah. That saddens me. I am tiahd of livin" in the hole in the ground myself sometimes. We will talk of the beautiful rooms above ground that we will build fo" her.
"Look. You entah a wide door whose threshold her little feet will press. She will trail up this staiahway," and he let his pencil linger lovingly over the place, "in her silks and velvets, followed by her maids, and theah on the second landing she will find palms and the flowahs she loves best, and her own white room with its bed of gold covahd with lace so delicate, delicate as she is. Soft, filmy lace fit fo" a Princess, fo" that is what she is. Theah will be bits of spindle-legged golden furniture about in this white bed-room of hers and pier-gla.s.ses that will maik a dozen of her, that will maik twenty of her, we will arrange it so; for theah cannot be too many reflections, can theah, of so gracious and lovely a Princess?"
Once more Cyclona tapped him on the shoulder.
"Seth," said she, "where is the room for the Prince?"
Seth looked up at her vacantly. It was some time before he answered.
Then his answer showed vagueness; for what with the howl of the wind and the eternal presence in the closet of his soul of the skeleton of despair, his mind had become a little erratic at times.
"When the Prince has proven himself worthy to be the Prince Consort of so wonderful a Princess," he replied, "then he, too, may come and live in the beautiful house, but not until then."
His thoughts harked back to the cellar. Staring ahead of him he saw the slight figure of a woman silhouetted against the tender pearl of the evening sky, eyes staring affrightedly into the darkened door of a dugout, a fluff of yellow hair like a halo about the beautiful face.
"A cellah is a hole in the ground," he sighed. "A cellah is a hole in the ground. Theah shall be nothing about this house I shall build fo"
the Princess in any way resemblin" a hole in the ground. Holes in the ground are fo" wolves and prairie dogs and...."
"And us," Cyclona finished grimly, then smiled.
Seth, drawing himself up, gazed at her.
In her own wild way Cyclona had grown to be beautiful, still brown as a Gypsy, but large of eye and red of lip. She might have pa.s.sed for a type of Creole or a study in bronze as she faced him with that little smile of defiance on her red lips. Too beautiful she was for a dugout, true, and yet the dusky brownish gray of the earth-colored walls served in a way to set off her rich dark coloring.
Seth returned to the plan.
"And for us," he a.s.sented, humbly.
"We must build it of stone," he continued. "White stone. Stone never blows away. It will be finished, too, with the finest of wood, covahd...."
"Wait," cried Cyclona, turning over the leaves of the Book, "and he built the walls of the house with boards of cedar, both the floor of the house and the walls of the ceiling. And he covered them on the inside with wood and covered the floor of the house with planks of fir."
"Cedah," nodded Seth. "It would be well to build it of cedah. The cedah is a Southern tree. It would remind her of home.
"We will finish it, then, with cedah and polish it so well that laik the mirrors it will reflect her face as she walks about. Heah will be the music room. It shall have a piano made of the same rich wood. It will look as if it were built in the house. Theah shall be guitahs and mandolins. She plays the guitah a little, Cyclona, the Princess. You should see her small white hands as she fingahs the strings. I will have a low divan of many cushions heah by the window of the music room. She shall sit heah in her beautiful gown of silk. White silk, fo" white becomes her best, her beauty is so dainty. She shall sit heah in her white silk gown and play and play and sing those Southern songs of hers that ah so full of music...."
He dropped his pencil and sat very still for a s.p.a.ce, looking ahead of him out of the window.
The panorama, framed by its limited sash of wilful winds playing havoc with the clouds, became obliterated by the picture of her, sitting by a wide and sunny window, backed by those gay pillows, thrumming with slim white fingers on the guitar and singing.
Again Cyclona waked him from his day dream with a touch. He ran his fingers through his hair, staring at her.
"Is that you, Charlie," he asked her.
"Not Charlie," she answered. "Cyclona."
"I beg yoah pahdon," he said. "Ve"y often now you seem to me to be Charlie. I don"t know why."
"Tell me more about the Princess," soothed Cyclona, "is she so beautiful?"
"Beautiful," echoed Seth. "She is fit fo" any palace, she is so beautiful. And when the Wise Men come out of the East we will build it fo" her. It shall have gold do"k.n.o.bs and jewelled ornaments and rare birds of gay plumage to sing and keep her company, and painted ceilings and little cupids carved in mahble, and theah shall be graven images set on onyx pedestals and some curious Hindoo G.o.ds squatting, and a Turkish room of red lights dimmed by little carved lanterns and rich, rare rugs and pictuahs by great mastahs in gilded frames, and walls lined with the books she loves best in royal bindings.... And she shall have servants to wait upon her and do her bidding and we will send to Paris fo" her gowns and her bonnets and her wraps. And she shall have carriages and coachmen and footmen. A Victoria, I think I shall odah fo" her, ve"y elegant, lined with blue to match her eyes.... No--that would be too light. Her eyes are beautiful, Cyclona.
Don"t think fo" a moment that they are not, but can you undahstan", I wondah, how eyes can be ve"y beautiful and yet of a cold and steely blue that sometimes freezes the blood in youah veins? A little too light, perhaps, and that gives them the look of cleah cold cut steel.
"I shall have the linings of her Victoria light, but not quite so light, a little dahkah and wahmah, perhaps, the footmen with a livery to match. That goes without sayin". And she shall have outridahs, too, if she likes, as in the olden time back theah at home in the South. No grand dame of the ole and splendid South she loves so well shall be so grand as she, shall be so splendid as she when we shall have finished the beautiful house fo" her.
"Cyclona," wildly, "how could we expect a little delicate frail Southern woman to come and live in a hole in the ground. How could we?
Why shouldn"t she hate the wind? Ah! We must still the winds! We must still the winds! But how?"
At this Seth was wont to rise, to walk the circ.u.mscribed length of his miserable dwelling and to worry his soul.
"How shall we still the winds?" he would moan. "How shall we still the winds that the soun" of them shall not disturb her?"
After a long time of thinking: