As the major laid aside his presents, he kissed the scarf, and then--I regret to say without saying _his_ prayers--the young man went to bed.
The scene must now be transferred to the room where the sisters--in affection, if not in blood--were about to seek their pillows also.
Maud, ever the quickest and most prompt in her movements, was already in her night-clothes; and, wrapping a shawl about herself, was seated waiting for Beulah to finish her nightly orisons. It was not long before the latter rose from her knees, and then our heroine spoke.
"The major must have examined the basket by this time," she cried, her cheek rivalling the tint of a riband it leaned against, on the back of the chair. "I heard his heavy tramp--tramp--tramp--as he went to his room--how differently these men walk from us girls, Beulah!"
"They do, indeed; and Bob has got to be so large and heavy, now, that he quite frightens me, sometimes. Do you not think he grows wonderfully like papa?"
"I do not see it. He wears his own hair, and it"s a pity he should ever cut it off, it"s so handsome and curling. Then he is taller, but lighter--has more colour--is so much younger--and everyway so different, I wonder you think so. I do not think him in the least like father."
"Well, that is odd, Maud. Both mother and myself were struck with the resemblance, this evening, and we were both delighted to see it. Papa is quite handsome, and so I think is Bob. Mother says he is not _quite_ as handsome as father was, at his age, but _so_ like him, it is surprising!"
"Men may be handsome and not alike. Father is certainly one of the handsomest elderly men of my acquaintance--and the major is so-so-ish-- but, I wonder you can think a man of seven-and-twenty so _very_ like one of sixty odd. Bob tells me he can play the flute quite readily now, Beulah."
"I dare say; he does everything he undertakes uncommonly well. Mr.
Woods said, a few days since, he had never met with a boy who was quicker at his mathematics."
"Oh! All Mr. Wood"s geese are swans. I dare say there have been other boys who were quite as clever. I do not believe in _non-pareils,_ Beulah."
"You surprise me, Maud--you, whom I always supposed such a friend of Bob"s! He thinks everything _you_ do, too, so perfect! Now, this very evening, he was looking at the sketch you have made of the Knoll, and he protested he did not know a regular artist in England, even, that would have done it better."
Maud stole a glance at her sister, while the latter was speaking, from under her cap, and her cheeks now fairly put the riband to shame; but her smile was still saucy and wilful.
"Oh nonsense," she said--"Bob"s no judge of drawings--_He_ scarce knows a tree from a horse!"
"I"m surprised to hear you say so, Maud," said the generous-minded and affectionate Beulah, who could see no imperfection in Bob; "and that of your brother. When he taught _you_ to draw, you thought him well skilled as an artist."
"Did I?--I dare say I"m a capricious creature--but, somehow, I don"t regard Bob, just as I used to. He has been away from us so much, of late, you know--and the army makes men so formidable--and, they are not like us, you know--and, altogether, I think Bob excessively changed."
"Well, I"m glad mamma don"t hear this, Maud. She looks upon her son, now he is a major, and twenty-seven, just as she used to look upon him, when he was in petticoats--nay, I think she considers us all exactly as so many little children."
"She is a dear, good mother, I know," said Maud, with emphasis, tears starting to her eyes, involuntarily, almost _impetuously_-- "whatever she says, does, wishes, hopes, or thinks, is right."
"Oh! I knew you would come to, as soon as there was a question about mother! Well, for my part, I have no such horror of men, as not to feel just as much tenderness for father or brother, as I feel for mamma, herself."
"Not for Bob, Beulah. Tenderness for Bob! Why, my dear sister, that is feeling tenderness for a _Major of Foot_, a very different thing from feeling it for one"s mother. As for papa--dear me, he is glorious, and I do so love him!"
"You ought to, Maud; for you were, and I am not certain that you are not, at this moment, _his_ darling."
It was odd that this was said without the least thought, on the part of the speaker, that Maud was not her natural sister--that, in fact, she was not in the least degree related to her by blood. But so closely and judiciously had captain and Mrs. Willoughby managed the affair of their adopted child, that neither they themselves, Beulah, nor the inmates of the family or household, ever thought of her, but as of a real daughter of her nominal parents. As for Beulah, her feelings were so simple and sincere, that they were even beyond the ordinary considerations of delicacy, and she took precisely the same liberties with her t.i.tular, as she would have done with a natural sister. Maud alone, of all in the Hut, remembered her birth, and submitted to some of its most obvious consequences. As respects the captain, the idea never crossed her mind, that she was adopted by him; as respects her mother, she filled to her, in every sense, that sacred character; Beulah, too, was a sister, in thought and deed; but, Bob, he had so changed, had been so many years separated from her; had once actually called her Miss Meredith-- somehow, she knew not how herself--it was fully six years since she had begun to remember that _he_ was not her brother.
"As for my father," said Maud, rising with emotion, and speaking with startling emphasis--"I will not say I _love_ him--I _worship_ him!"
"Ah! I know that well enough, Maud; and to say the truth, you are a couple of idolaters, between you. Mamma says this, sometimes; though she owns she is not jealous. But it would pain her excessively to hear that you do not feel towards Bob, just as we all feel."
"But, ought I?--Beulah, I cannot!"
"Ought you!--Why not, Maud? Are you in your senses, child?"
"But--you know--I"m sure--you ought to remember--"
"_What_?" demanded Beulah, really frightened at the other"s excessive agitation.
"That I am _not_ his real--true--_born_ sister!"
This was the first time in their lives, either had ever alluded to the fact, in the other"s presence. Beulah turned pale; she trembled all over, as if in an ague; then she luckily burst into tears, else she might have fainted.
"Beulah--my sister--my _own_ sister!" cried Maud, throwing herself into the arms of the distressed girl.
"Ah! Maud, you _are_, you _shall_ for ever be, my only, only sister."
Chapter VI.
O! It is great for our country to die, where ranks are contending; Bright is the wreath of our fame; Glory awaits us for aye-- Glory, that never is dim, shining on with light never ending-- Glory, that never shall fade, never, O! never away.
Percival.
Notwithstanding the startling intelligence that had so unexpectedly reached it, and the warm polemical conflict that had been carried on within its walls, the night pa.s.sed peacefully over the roof of the Hutted Knoll. At the return of dawn, the two Plinys, both the Smashes, and all the menials were again afoot; and, ere long, Mike, Saucy Nick Joel, and the rest were seen astir, in the open fields, or in the margin of the woods. Cattle were fed, cows milked fires lighted, and everything pursued its course, in the order of May. The three wenches, as female negroes were then termed, _ex officio_, in America, opened their throats, as was usual at that hour, and were heard singing at their labours, in a way nearly to deaden the morning carols of the tenants of the forest. _Mari"_ in particular, would have drowned the roar of Niagara. The captain used to call her his clarion.
In due time, the superiors of the household made their appearance. Mrs.
Willoughby was the first out of her room, as was ever the case when there was anything to be done. On the present occasion, the "fatted calf" was to be killed, not in honour of the return of a prodigal son, however, but in behalf of one who was the pride of her eyes, and the joy of her heart. The breakfast that she ordered was just the sort of breakfast, that one must visit America to witness. France can set forth a very scientific _dejeuner a la fourchette,_ and England has laboured-and ponderous imitations; but, for the spontaneous, superabundant, unsophisticated, natural, all-sufficing and all-subduing morning"s meal, take America, in a better-cla.s.s house, in the country, and you reach the _ne plus ultra_, in that sort of thing. Tea, coffee, and chocolate, of which the first and last were excellent, and the second respectable; ham, fish, eggs, toast, cakes, rolls, marmalades, &c. &c. &c., were thrown together in n.o.ble confusion; frequently occasioning the guest, as Mr. Woods naively confessed, an utter confusion of mind, as to which he was to attack, when all were inviting and each would be welcome.
Leaving Mrs. Willoughby in deep consultation with Mari" on the subject of this feast, we will next look after the two sweet girls whom we so abruptly deserted in the last chapter. When Maud"s glowing cheeks were first visible that morning, signs of tears might have been discovered on them, as the traces of the dew are found on the leaf of the rose; but they completely vanished under the duties of the toilet, and she came forth from her chamber, bright and cloudless as the glorious May- morning, which had returned to cheer the solitude of the manor. Beulah followed, tranquil, bland and mild as the day itself, the living image of the purity of soul, and deep affections, of her honest nature.
The sisters went into the breakfast-room, where they had little lady- like offices of their own to discharge, too, in honour of the guest; each employing herself in decorating the table, and in seeing that it wanted nothing in the proprieties As their pleasing tasks were fulfilled, the discourse did not flag between them. Nothing, however, had been said, that made the smallest allusion to the conversation of the past night. Neither felt any wish to revive that subject; and, as for Maud, bitterly did she regret ever having broached it. At times, her cheeks burned with blushes, as she recalled her words; and yet she scarce knew the reason why. The feeling of Beulah was different. She wondered her sister could ever think she was a Meredith, and not a Willoughby. At times she feared some unfortunate oversight of her own, some careless allusion, or indiscreet act, might have served to remind Maud of the circ.u.mstances of her real birth. Yet there was nothing in the last likely to awaken unpleasant reflections, apart from the circ.u.mstance that she was not truly a child of the family into which she had been transplanted. The Merediths were, at least, as nonourable a family as the Willoughbys, in the ordinary worldly view of the matter; nor was Maud, by any means, a dependant, in the way of money.
Five thousand pounds, in the English funds, had been settled on her, by the marriage articles of her parents; and twenty years of careful husbandry, during which every shilling had been scrupulously devoted to acc.u.mulation, had quite doubled the original amount. So far from being penniless, therefore, Maud"s fortune was often alluded to by the captain, in a jocular way, as if purposely to remind her that she had the means of independence, and duties connected with it. It is true, Maud, herself, had no suspicion that she had been educated altogether by her "father," and that her own money had not been used for this purpose. To own the truth, she thought little about it; knew little about it, beyond the fact, that she had a fortune of her own, into the possession of which she must step, when she attained her majority. How she came by it, even, was a question she never asked though there were moments when tender regrets and affectionate melancholy would come over her heart, as she thought of her natural parents, and of their early deaths. Still, Maud implicitly reposed on the captain and Mrs.
Willoughby, as on a father and mother; and it was not owing to _them_, or anything connected with their love, treatment, words, or thoughts, that she was reminded that they were not so in very fact, as well as in tenderness.
"Bob will think _you_ made these plum sweetmeats, Beulah," said Maud, with a saucy smile, as she placed a gla.s.s plate on the table--"He never thinks I _can_ make anything of this sort; and, as he is so fond of plums, he will be certain to taste them; then _you_ will come in for the praise!"
"You appear to think, that _praise_ he must. Perhaps he may not fancy them good."
"If I thought so, I would take them away this instant," cried Maud, standing in the att.i.tude of one in doubt. "Bob does _not_ think much of such things in girls, for he says ladies need not be cooks; and yet when one _does_ make a thing of this sort, one would certainly like to have it _well_ made."
"Set your heart at ease, Maud; the plums are delicious--much the best we ever had, and we are rather famous for them, you know. I"ll answer for it, Bob will p.r.o.nounce them the best he has ever tasted."
"And if he shouldn"t, why should I care--that is, not _very much_--about it. You know they are the first I ever made, and one may be permitted to fail on a first effort. Besides, a man _may_ go to England, and see fine sights, and live in great houses, and all that, and not understand when he has good plum sweetmeats before him, and when bad. I dare say there are many _colonels_ in the army, who are ignorant on this point."
Beulah laughed, and admitted the truth of the remark; though, in her secret mind, she had almost persuaded herself that Bob knew everything.
"Do you not think our brother improved in appearance, Maud," she asked, after a short pause. "The visit to England has done him that service, at least."
"I don"t see it, Beulah--I see no change. To me, Bob is just the same to-day, that he has ever been; that is, ever since he grew to be a man--with boys, of course, it is different. Ever since he was made a captain, I mean."