"I do not know that I am fond of scandal," said Mr. Falkirk; "and yet I should like to know what particular variety of that favourite dish Madame chose to serve you with. And in the mean time, to relieve the dryness of the subject, Miss Hazel, will you give me a cup of tea?"
She sprang up, and began to busy herself at once with her home duties, but did not immediately answer his question. Until she came round to his side, bringing the fragrant and steaming cup of tea, and then apparently thoughts were too much for her, and she broke forth:
"Why don"t people marry each other if they want to, Mr.
Falkirk?" she said, standing still to put the question. "And if they _don"t_ want to, why do not other people let them alone?"
Mr. Falkirk shot one of his glances at the questioner from under his dark brows, and sipped his tea.
"There might be a variety of answers given to your first query, Miss Hazel. People that want to marry each other are proverbially subject to hindrances--from the days of fairy tales down to our own."
"They always do it in fairy tales, however."
"They very often do it in real life," said Mr. Falkirk gravely.
"Well, sir?--then why cannot they be left to take care of themselves, either way? It is such fudge!" she said, walking back to her place and energetically dropping sugar in her own cup.
"Who is Mme. Lasalle trying to take care of?"
"Me, last, sir. Warning me that things laughed at become dangerous. In which case I shall lead a tolerably risky life."
"Who is Mme. Lasalle warning you against?" demanded Mr.
Falkirk hastily.
"My dear sir, how excited you are over poor Mme. Lasalle! I presumed to laugh at some of her fancy sketches, and then of course she rapped me over the knuckles. Or meant it!" said Miss Hazel, slightly lifting her eyebrows.
"But I observe you do not answer me, my dear."
"No, sir,--if you will allow me to use my own judgment, I think I had better not. Let me have your cup, Mr. Falkirk please, and I"ll put more sugar in this time."
Mr. Falkirk finished his tea and made no more observations. He was silent and thoughtful,--moody, his ward might have fancied him,--while the tea-things were cleared away, and afterwards pored over the newspaper and did not read it. At last, when silence had reigned some time, he lifted his head up and turned round to where Wych Hazel sat.
"I have been considering a difficulty, Miss Hazel; will you help me out?"
"Gladly, sir, if I can." She had been sitting in musing idleness, going over the day perhaps, for now and then her lips curled and parted, with various expressions.
"We have come, you are aware, Miss Hazel, in the course of our progress, to the Enchanted Region;--where things are not what they seem; jewels lie hid in the soil for the finding, and treasures are at the top of the hill; but the conditions of success may be the stopping of the ears, you know; and lovely ladies by the way may turn out to be deadly enchantresses.
How, in this time of dangers and possibilities, can my wisdom avail for your inexperience? that is my question. Can you tell me?"
"Truly sir," she answered with laugh, "to get yourself out of a difficulty, you get me in! My inexperience is totally in the dark as to what your wisdom means."
"Precisely," said Mr. Falkirk; "so how shall we do? How shall I take care of you?"
"You have always known how, sir," she answered with a grateful flash of her brown eyes.
"When I had only a little Wych Hazel to take care of, and the care depended on myself," Mr. Falkirk said, with just an indication of a sigh stifled somewhere. "Now I can"t get along without your cooperation, my dear."
"Am I so much harder to manage than of old, sir? That speaks ill for me."
"My dear, I believe I remarked that we are upon Enchanted ground. It does not speak ill for you, that you may not know a bewitched pumpkin from a good honest piece of carriage maker"s work."
"No, sir. Is it the pumpkin variety for which Mr. Rollo is to find mice?"
"I have taken care of your affairs at least," said Mr. Falkirk gravely. "There is nothing about _them_ that is not sound. I wish other people did not know it so well!" he muttered.
"It is only poor little me," said Wych Hazel. "Never mind, sir,--in fairy tales one always comes out somehow. But I am sure I ought to be "sound" too, if care would do it."
"Will you help me, Hazel?" said Mr. Falkirk, bending towards her and speaking her name as in the old childish days.
"Gladly, sir,--if you will shew me how. And if it is not too hard," she said with a pretty look, well answering to her words.
"I wish you had a mother!" said Mr. Falkirk abruptly. And he turned back to the table, and for a little while that was all the answer he made; while Wych Hazel sat waiting. But then he began again.
"As I remarked before, Miss Hazel, we are come upon bewitched ground in our search after fortune. You spoke of two cla.s.ses of people a while ago, if you remember--people that want to marry each other and people that _don"t_."
"Yes sir. Which are the most of?"
"_Being_ upon bewitched ground, it might happen to you as to others--mind, not this year, perhaps, nor next; but it might happen--that you should find yourself in one of these two, as you intimate, large cla.s.ses. Suppose it; could you, having no mother, put confidence in an old guardian?"
Very grave, very gentle Mr. Falkirk"s manner and tone were; considerate of her, and very humble concerning himself.
"Why, Sir!"--she looked at him, the roses waking up in her cheeks as she caught his meaning more fully. Then her eyes fell again, and she said softly--"How do you mean, Mr. Falkirk?
There is n.o.body in the world whom I trust as I do you."
"I have never a doubt of that, my dear. But to make the trust avail you or me, practically, could you let me know the state of affairs?"
She moved restlessly in her chair, drawing a long breath or two.
"You say such strange things, sir. I do a.s.sure you, Mr.
Falkirk, I am ensconced in the very middle of one of those cla.s.ses. And that not the dangerous one," she added with a laugh, though the flushes came very frankly. "If _that_ is what you are afraid of."
"You are in about as dangerous a cla.s.s as any I know," said Mr. Falkirk, dryly; "the cla.s.s of people that everybody wants to marry. Miss Hazel, you are known to be the possessor of a very large propriety."
"Am I, sir? And is that what makes me so attractive? I thought that there must be some explanation of so sweeping a compliment from your lips."
A provoked little smile came upon Mr. Falkirk"s lips, but they grew grave again.
"So, Miss Hazel, how are you to know the false magician from the true knight?"
"He must be a poor knight who would leave the trouble on my hands," said the girl, with her young ideas strong upon her.
"If he does not prove himself, Mr. Falkirk, "I"ll none of him!" "
"How shall a man prove to you that he does not want Chickaree and your money, my dear?"
"Instead of me. I think--I should know," she answered slowly, so much absorbed in the question that she almost forgot its personal bearing. "Mr. Falkirk, false and true cannot be just alike?"
"Remember that in both cases so much is true. The desire to win your favour, and therefore the effort to please, are undoubted."
"Mr. Falkirk, you must be the a.s.sayer! Suppose you tell me now about all these people here, to begin with. I have not seen much that reminded me of magic _yet_," she said with a curl of her lips.