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Susan and Anna Warner - Wych Hazel

S >> Susan and Anna Warner >> Wych Hazel




'I beg your pardon! Miss Kennedy,' (in an aside) 'I see
Primrose and her father coming. Shall I stop them?'

'Why, of course!' she said, springing to her feet, 'What a
question!'

The two recumbent gentlemen rose at once.

'Do you always wear wildwood tints, Miss Kennedy?' asked Mr.
Simms, looking up admiringly at the slim figure. 'I thought
the other day that green was matchless, but to-day--'

'Yes,' said Wych Hazel, 'but if you would just please stand
out of my way, and let me jump down. I want to see Dr.
Maryland.'

The gentleman laughed and retreated, and disregarding the half
dozen offered hands, Hazel sprang from her rock and stood out
a step or two, shading her eyes and looking down the woodland,
where Rollo had disappeared to meet the approaching carriage.
The thicket was so close just here that the carriage road
though not far off was invisible. Down below Rollo had caught
a glimpse of the well known little green buggy creeping up the
hill; and in another few minutes its occupants appeared coming
through the trees. Wych Hazel had hold of their hands almost
before they had sight of her.

'I thought you had given me up, Dr. Maryland,' she said, 'and
were never coming to see me at all!'

'Two days,' said the Doctor benignly, 'two fair days my dear,
since we took breakfast together. I have not been very
delinquent. Though it seems I am not the first here. Good
morning, Mr. Kingsland!--how do you do, Mr. Burr?--how do you
do, Mr. Sutphen?--Mr. May? Are you holding an assembly here, my
dear?' And by that time Dr. Maryland had worked round to Mr.
Falkirk; and the hands of the two gentlemen closed in an
earnest prolonged clasp; after the approved method gentlemen
have of expressing their estimation of each other.

'Miss Kennedy is pretty sure to "hold" whoever comes near her,
sir,' said Mr. Burr.

'I can certify that the "assembly" is quite powerless, Doctor--
if it will be any relief to your mind,' said Mr. Kingsland.
While Hazel, with Prim's hand in hers, was eagerly speaking
her pleasure.

'What are you doing?' said Primrose under her breath and
looking in some astonishment at the gathering.

'O, nothing--talking,--they wanted to know how I got home,' said
Wych, an amused look betraying itself. Then quitting Primrose,
she went forward a little to receive the farewell addresses of
several gentlemen who preferred to see Miss Kennedy alone. The
group began to clear away. Prim's eye watched her, in her
graceful, pretty self-possession, as she met and returned the
parting salutation; and then went over by some instinct to
where another eye was watching her too, with a contented
sparkle in its intentness. That was only a second, though.
Rollo had no mind to have all the world know what he was
thinking about; and even as her glance found him, his turned
away. The strangers being at last disposed of, those remaining
began a slow procession towards the house. But a parting word
of Mr. Nightingale's must be noted.

'Any chance for a ride to the wood to-morrow?' he said, with
tones so modulated that he thought his words safe. And she
answered:

'O, my horses have not come. There will be little riding for
me yet a while.'

'And these are the Chickaree woods?' said Dr. Maryland, as
they walked on. 'How beautiful they are! Are you very happy,
Hazel, in the hope of being the mistress of all this?'

'Why I thought--I call myself the mistress now, sir. Is it an
uncertainty dependent on my good behaviour?' she said with a
laugh.

'You know you are not of age, my dear; but I suppose Mr.
Falkirk gives you the essentials of dominion. Do you feel at
home yet?'

'Very much! You know, sir, I have just a little remembrance of
the old time--when mamma was here--to begin with. But how
heedless I am!' she said, abruptly putting the little basket
which had been swinging from her hand into the hands of Dr.
Maryland. 'There, sir,--will you take some refreshment by the
way?' Then turning to Primrose, Miss Kennedy laid the fragrant
weight of hot-house flowers upon her.

'Are these from your garden?' said Primrose, somewhat
bewildered. While Dr. Maryland, putting his fingers without
scruple in among the black and white strawberries, asked in an
approving tone of voice: 'Have you been picking these
yourself, my dear?'

'I--picked them up, sir,' said Hazel with the laugh in her
voice. 'Not off the vines, however. They are hothouse
flowers,' she answered to Primrose. 'When my houses are in
order you shall have them every day.'

'They are very good,' said Dr. Maryland gravely, eating away.
'Where did you get them, my dear?'

'Mr. May brought them, sir,' said the girl, looking down now,
and walking straight on.

'Mr. May!' echoed Dr. Maryland. 'How comes Mr. May to be
bringing you strawberries? And those flowers too?' glancing
over at Primrose's full hands.

'No, sir, Mr. Burr brought the flowers.'

'You are a fearful man for asking questions, sir,' said Rollo,
with a flash of fun in his face.

'Questions?' said the doctor, picking out the black
strawberries abstractedly,--'I've a right to ask her questions.
The strawberries are good!--but I wish Mr. May had not brought
them.'

'So would he, if he knew you were eating them, sir.'

'I've eaten enough of them,' said Dr. Maryland, seeming to
recollect himself. 'They are very good; they are the finest
strawberries I have seen.' And he handed the basket to Mr.
Falkirk, who immediately passed it over to Rollo. Rollo
balanced the basket on his fingers and carried it so, but put
never a finger inside.

'I am afraid your head will be turned, Hazel, my dear,' said
Dr. Maryland, 'if the adulation has begun so soon. What will
you do when you are a little better known?'

'Ah!' said Hazel, with an indescribable intonation, 'ask Mr.
Falkirk that, Dr. Maryland. Poor Mr. Falkirk! he is learning
every day of his life what it is to know me "a little better!" '

'I can imagine that,' said Dr. Maryland, quite gravely. 'My
dear, what a beautiful old house you have!'

The June day, however, was so alluring that they could not
make up their minds to go inside. On the basket chairs in the
low verandah they sat down, and looked and talked. Primrose
did not talk much--she was quiet; nor Mr. Falkirk--he was
taciturn; the burden of talk was chiefly borne by Wych Hazel
and the Doctor. In a genial, enjoying, sympathising mood, Dr.
Maryland came out in a way uncommon for him! asked questions
about the woods, the property, the old house; and delighted
himself in the beauty that was abroad in earth and sky.

'My dear,' he said at last to Wych Hazel, 'you have all that
this world can give you. What are you going to do with it?'

'Have I?' she said, rather wistfully. 'I thought I was looking
for something more. What could I do with it, sir? You know Mr.
Falkirk manages everything as well as can be, now.'

'Are you looking for something more?' said Dr. Maryland,
tenderly. 'What more are you looking for, Hazel?'

'Suppose I should tell you I do not quite know, myself, sir?'

'I should say, my dear, the best thing would be to find out.'

'I shall know when I find it,' said the girl. 'If I find it.'

' "To him that hath shall be given!" One of the best ways,
Hazel, to find more is to make the best use of what we have.'

The girl left her seat, and kneeling down by Dr. Maryland,
laid her hand on his shoulder.

'I mean,' she said, dropping her voice so that only the doctor
could hear, 'not more of what people call much; but something,
where I have nothing. To belong to somebody--to have somebody
belong to me.'

'Ah, my dear,' said the doctor, wistfully, 'I am afraid
Primrose wouldn't do.'

'I have wanted her ever since she took me in out of the rain,
and did not wonder how I got wet,' said Hazel laughing but
dropping her voice again.

'If you had her, my dear, you would then want something or
somebody else.'

'Maybe you do not understand me, sir,' she said, a little
eager to be understood, and pouring out confidences in a way
as rare with her as it was complimentary to her hearer. 'I am
not complaining of anybody. I know Mr. Falkirk is very fond of
me--but he likes to keep me off at a respectful distance. Only
a few nights ago, I was feeling particularly good, for me, and
rather lonely, and I just asked him to kiss me for good night--
and it made him so glum that he has hardly opened his lips to
me ever since!' said Wych Hazel in an aggrieved voice.

'Perhaps Mr. Falkirk has something upon his mind, my dear!'
said Dr. Maryland, with raised eyebrows and an uncommon
expression of _fun_ playing about the lines of his mouth. 'It is
not always safe to conclude that coincident facts have a
relation of cause and effect.'

'No--' said the girl, 'I suppose not. But I stood there all by
myself and heard him turn the keys and rattle the bolts--and
then I ran upstairs to find Mrs. Bywank,--and of course she
couldn't speak for a toothache. And then I felt as if there
was nobody in all the world--in all my world--but me!'

Dr. Maryland looked tenderly upon the young girl beside him,
yet uncomprehendingly. Probably his peculiar masculine nature
furnished him with no clue to her essentially feminine views
of things.

'I dare say, my dear,' he said,--'I dare say! The best cure for
such a state of feeling hat I know, would be to begin living
for other people. You will find the world grow populous very
soon. And one other cure,'--he added, his eye going away from
Wych Hazel into an abstracted gaze towards the outer world;--
'when you can say, "Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there
is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee." '

The little hand upon his shoulder stirred,--was lifted, and
laid down again. Somehow she comprehended him better than he
did her. Then with a sudden motion Hazel took off a luminous
bracelet--one of the three she always wore, and laid it across
Dr. Maryland's hand.

'Did mamma ever shew you that, sir?' she said. 'She had it
made just for me. And then my wrist was so small that it would
go twice round.'

It was a string of twelve stones, all different, all cut and
set alike; each long parallelogram fitting rather closely to
the next on either side; the hues--opaque, translucent,
clouded--flashed and gleamed with every imaginable variation of
colour and shade. The doctor looked at it in silence. Then
spoke.

'What did she mean by it, Hazel, my dear? I do not catch the
interpretation.'

She turned it a little in his hand, until the light fell on
the gold framing beneath the gems, and Dr. Maryland could read
the fine graven tracery:--"The first, a jasper."

'Ah!' he exclaimed with new interest, 'I see.' And he took up
the chain of stones and turned it over and over, rather passed
it through his fingers like a rosary, studying the stones and
murmuring the names of them.

' "The wall of the city had twelve foundations," ' he said at
last, giving the chain back, with a look of light and love
combined; ' "and in the wall were twelve gates, and each
several gate was one pearl; and the streets were gold, like
unto transparent glass, and nothing that defileth shall by any
means enter there, but those that are washed in the blood of
the Lamb." I like that, my dear.'

His look made all the application his words did not. Presently
he rose up and asked Wych Hazel if he might go into her
library? A book was there, he thought, that he wanted to look
at. Hazel guided him in, but then he dismissed her and she
went back to Primrose on the verandah. Slowly back,--softly
fingering her bright stones, soberly thinking to herself the
motto upon the clasp:--"In hope of eternal life."

'What were you talking to papa about?' said Primrose, putting
a loving hand into Wych Hazel's. The two other gentlemen were
speaking together at a little distance. 'I thought you looked
troubled; but I could not hear, for Duke was talking to me.'

'Dr. Maryland should have been the troubled one, part of the
time,' said Hazel, bringing her other hand upon Prim's, 'for I
asked him to give you to me.'

'What would become of him and Duke?' said Primrose smiling.

'Really, Mr. Rollo did not enter into my calculations!' said
Wych Hazel, coming back with a rebound into her everyday self.
'Does he require much time and care bestowed upon him?'

'Don't you think all men do?'

'I do not know all men,' said Wych Hazel. 'Mr. Falkirk does
not get it. But does Mr. Rollo _live_ at your house?'

'Why of course, when he's here. He always did, you know. And
O, Duke helps me. It is twice as easy to take care of papa,
when I have him in the house, too. But Hazel, I am going to
get _you_ to help me,--in another way--if I can.'

'What way?' said Hazel. 'Then if Mr. Rollo is so helpful, he
might take care of Dr. Maryland altogether, and you could come
to take care of me.'

Primrose laughed.

'O men cannot get along as women can--don't you know that?' she
said. 'No, I want you for my Sunday school. What's the
matter?'"

These last words were caused by a diversion of the speaker's
thoughts. For she had noticed, while speaking, that a man had
come in haste to the place where the two gentlemen were
standing; and that after a very few words Mr. Falkirk had
thrown on his hat and gone down the grassy slope with the
messenger; while Rollo had turned as suddenly and was coming
towards them.


CHAPTER XIX.

SELF-CONTROL.


Rollo came up with the grave, business look of one who has
serious matters on hand.

'A messenger has come,' he said, speaking to Wych Hazel, 'to
say that one of the men has met with an accident.'

He could see how the shock struck her, but she made no
exclamation, only her hands met in a tight clasp as they had
done in the woods' fire. She faced him silently, waiting more
words.

'I don't know yet how bad it is. I am going to see; and I will
come back to you by and by.'

'Where?--and who?' she asked.

'In the wood-cutting. It is Reo.' He spoke as a man who speaks
unwillingly.

Hazel gave a little cry at that, and turning suddenly flew
into the house. The next thing was the flutter of her light
foot outside among the trees. But, overtaken the next minute,
she was stopped by a hand on her arm and held fast. However
Dane spoke very gently.

'Miss Hazel!--you had better not go yourself.'

'I am going,' she said, struggling to disengage herself. 'Mr.
Rollo!--'

'Stop,' he said gently and steadily. 'Miss Hazel--I shall not
let you go.'

In her excitement she hardly took in more than the mere fact
of his words, and dropping everything she had in her hand,
Hazel took hold of his fingers and began to loosen them with
her own, which had a good deal of will in them, of they were
small. The immediate effect was to secure the imprisonment of
both her hands in a clasp that was stronger than her's. I
hardly think Rollo disliked it, for he smiled a little as he
spoke:

'Listen,' he said,--'Miss Hazel, I shall not let you go down
yonder. I will bring you news as soon as I can--but you must
stay here with Rosy. Don't you see?' he added very gently, as
he turned about and walked toward the house with her, putting
one little hand on his arm while other hand still held it
fast,--'don't you see, you could do nothing just yet? And I
take this upon myself--I shall not let you go. You must stay
here and take care of Rosy, till I can come back to you.'

'I will not,' she said, stopping short again. 'I will go! It
is my right! Where should a woman be? And--Oh!' she cried with
a change of tone, 'it is Reo!--And he will want things--and he
will want me!'

'Not yet,' said Rollo; 'it is not time for either yet. He
shall want nothing, I promise you, that he ought to have. But
you must be good and stay with Rosy.'

He spoke as a brother might speak to a little sister of whom
he was very fond, or--brothers do not often take just that
tone. Primrose, looking on, knew very well what it meant. Wych
Hazel was in far too much commotion of mind to discern
anything. She had yielded to superior strength,--which indeed
she could not gracefully resist; and then there came over her
heart such a flood of grief, that for the last few steps she
was quite passive; though giving no sign but the quiver that
touched her mouth, and went and came again. But at Rollo's
last words she drew herself up defiantly.

'Do you expect to stand here and hold me all day?' she said.

'No?' he said gravely, now meeting her look,--'I expect you to
have self-control and womanly patience, and to let me go and
do my part, until it is time for you to do yours. Will you?'

'I shall do what I think best. The question is none of yours,
Mr. Rollo. Self-control!--I have a little!' she said under her
breath.

'Do you mean to keep me here,' he said gravely and quietly,
'when I may be so much wanted elsewhere? You would be in the
way there, but I am needed. Still, you are my first care. Must
I stay here to take care of you? or will you promise me to be
good and wait quietly with Primrose, until I bring you word?'

His eye went to Primrose as he ended, in a mute appeal for
help. And Prim came near and laid her hand softly on Wych
Hazel's shoulder.

'Do, dear Hazel!' she said. 'Duke knows; you may trust him.'

It was indescribable the way she freed herself from them both,
as if to be touched, now, was beyond the bounds of endurance.
Prim's words Hazel utterly ignored, but something in the
other's claimed attention.

'Go! Go!'--she said hurriedly. 'Go and do your part!--If you had
been content with doing that at first, we should have had no
trouble.' She wrapped her arms round one of the light verandah
pillars, and leaning her head against it gave look nor word
more.

Rollo staid for none, but dashed away down the slope and was
lost in the woods. Primrose stood near Wych Hazel, very much
at a loss indeed; but too troubled to be still.

'Dear Hazel!' she ventured, in a very soft voice--'don't feel
so! What is the matter?'

'Did you not hear?'

'Yes; but Hazel dear, you know hardly anything yet; there may
be very little to be troubled about. The accident may be very
slight, for all you know. I always think it is best to wait
and see; and then have your strength ready to work with.'

'My strength has been extremely useful to-day.'

'What to you mean, dear?' said Primrose, softly endeavouring
to coax the hands and arms away from the verandah pillar.
'Look here--look up and be yourself again. Maybe there is very
little the matter. Wait and see.'

'Wait!'--Hazel repeated. 'People talk as if waiting was such
easy work!'

'I never said it was easy,' said Primrose gently. 'But some
people have to wait all their lives.' There was the very
essence of patience in the intonation.

'I should think their lives would be short.'

Primrose sighed a little and was silent. Perhaps she thought
that those who had little occasion to practise the grace were
unreasonable. But I think she only remembered that the one
near her was very unpractised.

'Forgive me--I do not mean to--be--' the girl faltered out, the
tremor coming back to her voice. 'But Reo!--' And with that,
pain and disappointment and chagrin joined forces; and
quitting her pillar, Hazel dropped down by one of the great
wicker chairs, and laying her head there burst into a passion
of weeping that almost made Primrose wish for the hard-edged
calm again.

So she stood passively by until the storm was spent; and Dr.
Maryland having satisfied his book quest, came out again,
awakening to the fact that it was time he and Primrose were
jogging homeward. Primrose took him aside and explained the
situation of affairs, after which Dr. Maryland, too, forthwith
betook himself down the slope in the direction where Mr.
Falkirk and Rollo had disappeared. After a little interval of
further suspense he was seen coming back again. He reported
that Reo was not much hurt; had been a good deal bruised, and
the accident had threatened to be serious; but after all no
great harm was done. Primrose nevertheless begged that her
father would go home without her; she could come with Duke,
she said.

Dr. Maryland's wagon had not been brought round, however, when
a very different vehicle appeared, climbing the steep; and
Primrose proclaimed that Mrs. Powder was at hand. The carriage
drew up before the verandah, and from it descended the ex-
Governor's lady, and two young ones--Miss Annabella and
another. Mrs. Powder was a stately lady, large and dignified;--
those two things do not always go together, but they did in
her case. She was extremely gracious to all the members of the
little group she found gathered to receive her. Then, as Dr.
Maryland was going, she sat down to talk to him about some
business which engaged her. So the two older persons were a
little removed from the rest. Miss Annabella did nothing but
look handsome and calm, after her wont; but her younger sister
was of different mettle.

'And so this is Chickaree?' she said, gazing up and down and
about, at the old house and its surroundings. 'What a
delightful old place! And are you the mistress of it, really--
without being married, you know? How splendid! I always think
that's the worst of being married--you lose your liberty, you
know, and there's always somebody to bother you; but to have a
grand place, and house, and all that, and to be mistress, and
_have no master!_--I declare,' Miss Josephine cried, throwing up
hands and eyes, 'it's as good as a fairy tale. And much
better, for it don't all vanish in smoke in a minute. Oh,
don't you feel like a fairy princess in the midst of all your
magnificence? You look like it, too!' added the young lady,
surveying the person of her hostess. 'Ain't you proud?'

Hazel's spent and past excitement had left her rather pale and
grave, so that she was doing the honours with an extra touch
of stateliness. Self-control was trying its best now, for she
had not the least mind that anybody should know it had ever
been shaken. So she ordered lunch to be served out there on
the verandah, and made Dr. Maryland wait for it, and talked to
Miss Annabella; and now gave Miss Josephine a cool 'Proud! Is
that what you call it?' which left nothing to be desired.

'I thought they said she was so brilliant?' remarked Miss
Annabella, in an aside to Primrose. 'But I suppose _that_ is
with gentlemen.'

'What do _you_ call it?' the younger Miss Powder went on. '_I_
should be proud--awfully--if I had such a house and all. I'd
take my time about being married. Wouldn't you? Don't you
think it is best to put off being married as long as you can?--
not till it's _too_ late, you know. The fun's all over then--
don't you think so?--except the house, and carriage, and
establishment, and giving entertainments, and all that. And
you have got it all already. Oh, I should think you would make
the men dance round?'

Wych Hazel had followed this rush of new ideas with a degree
of amazement, which, before she knew, culminated in a merry
laugh. But she was grave again immediately.

'Should you?' she said. 'How do you do it?'

'_Don't you know how?_' said the other girl, with an expression
of insinuation, fun and daring which it is difficult to give
on paper. She was a pretty, bright girl, too. The question
would have been impudent if it had not been comical. 'I know
you do!' she went on. 'You've a good battery. I'd like to see
you do it. I always do. It's such fun! All men are good for,'
she exclaimed next, with a curl on her lip, 'except to carry
one's parasol and things. Do you know Kitty Fisher?'

'Not even by name,' said Miss Kennedy, studying her guest as
an entirely new species.

'She's a splendid girl. She's coming to Moscheloo next week;
there'll be goings on then. People are so stupid here in the
country, they want somebody to wake them up. Kitty's awfully
jolly. Oh, what a lovely old house! Take me in and let me see
it, won't you? Oh, what a lovely hall! What a place for a
German! Oh, you'll give a German, won't you?'

'I do not know what I shall give, yet, Miss Powder.'

'I'm not Miss Powder! Annabella wouldn't thank you. She'd like
me to be Miss Powder, though. Tell me; don't you think people
could get along just as well if they weren't married? Now
there's my mother wants to marry us off as quick as she can;
and every other girl's mother is just the same. What do they
do it for? Oh, you've got a dreadful old guardian, haven't
you? Does he want you to get married? Ain't it hateful to have
a guardian? I should think it would be awfully poky.'

'Did you ever see Mr. Falkirk?' said Hazel gravely. Somehow
this girl's talk made her extremely reticent. But that made
little difference to Miss "Phinny." The next question was:

'Do you know Stephen Kingsland?'

'Yes.'

'Don't you admire him? Ain't he a catch, for somebody! But you
know Stuart Nightingale, don't you?'

Again Miss Kennedy said yes.

'Like him?'

'Do you?' said Hazel.

'I think he's splendid! He's so amusing; and he's a _splendid_
dancer. It's fun to dance with Stuart Nightingale. I don't
very often get him, though. But you didn't answer me--do you
like him?'

'I am not much in the habit of answering people,' said Hazel
frankly. 'You will find that out if you see enough of me.'

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