John Crombie Brown - "The Ethics of George Eliot's Works"

Mary Mills Patrick - "Sextus Empiricus and Greek Scepticism"

Robert S. Rait - "An Outline of the Relations between England and Scotland (500 1707)"

Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr - "The Squire of Sandal Side"

Books of The Times: A 5th Gospel Can Be Like a 5th Wheel
An independent publisher said it was negotiating to release Herman Rosenblat’s discredited memoir, “Angel at the Fence,” as fiction.

Arts, Briefly: False Memoir May Find New Life as Fiction
The architectural historian Kenneth Frampton has updated his 1995 book with 11 additional houses.

Currents | Books: 11 More Great Homes
A personal Christmas tale posted online by the author Neale Donald Walsch turns out to belong to someone else — the writer Candy Chand, who first published it 10 years ago.

Susan and Anna Warner - Wych Hazel

S >> Susan and Anna Warner >> Wych Hazel




'No,' said Prim earnestly, 'I don't mean out-of-the-way people
at all; though it is something "uncanny"--as it seems;--queer; I
have heard of instances.'

'I have felt them,' said Rollo.

Primrose went into a brown study over the question.

'But do you think,' Rollo went on gravely addressing Wych
Hazel, 'that this sort of mental action can take place except
where there are strong sympathetic--or other--relations between
the parties?'

'So that the magnet finds out the iron, when it would pass by
the lead?--is that what you mean?'

A significant, quick, keen look; and then Rollo said, very
gravely,

'But it strikes me we have got the thing reversed. Is it not
rather the iron that finds the magnet?'

'The magnet must be conscious too,' said Hazel. 'And I think
it moves--where the iron is in sufficient quantity.'

'It would be a poor rule that wouldn't work both ways,' said
Rollo, with dry simplicity.

'What are you talking about?' said Primrose. 'Do give Hazel
some more raspberries. I am inclined to think this, Duke--'

'Well?'

'I am inclined to think that in those cases you have been
speaking of, there is testimony of the person's presence, only
it is in some such little slight things as were insufficient
to draw attention to themselves, and only, by natural
association of ideas, suggested the person.'

'What do you think, Miss Hazel?'

But she shook her head.

'If you go off to people--I should say, sometimes, that could
not be.'

'So should I,' said Rollo.

'Why?' said Primrose.

'I cannot find in my consciousness, or memory, any
corroboration of your theory.'

'I think I can in mine. Sometimes, at least.'

'Those are not my times,' said Rollo.

'And I don't know but you are right, too,' said Primrose,
musing. 'I remember, that day you were coming home, I had not
the least reason to think so, and yet you were in my mind all
day.'

'What is your explanation then?' said he, smiling at her.

Prim was not ready with it; and before she was ready to speak
again, Wych Hazel was informed that her escort was at her
service.

Dr. Maryland's little old chaise was at the door. Rollo put
Miss Kennedy in it and took the reins. It was late in the
sweet Summer afternoon; the door and the road and the fields
looked exceedingly unlike the same things seen in shadow and
moonlight last night. Rollo never referred to that, however;
he was just as usual; took care that Wych Hazel was
comfortably seated, and made careless little remarks, in his
wonted manner. Various people passed them; many were the
greetings, answered for the most part very sedately by the
young lady of Chickaree. But just as they entered the
outskirts of her own domain, Rollo felt his companion shrink
towards him with a sudden start. Then instantly she sat
upright in her place. Two or three horsemen were in sight, at
different distances; one, the nearest, was a stranger to
Rollo. A remarkably handsome man, splendidly mounted,
faultlessly dressed; riding his grey with the easy grace of a
true cavalier. He uncovered before he was near enough to do
more, and then bent even to his saddle-bow before Miss
Kennedy. And to him, turning full upon him, did Miss Kennedy
administer the most complete, cool, effectual cut that Mr.
Rollo had ever seen bestowed. The rider's face turned crimson
as he passed on.

Rollo made no sort of remark; drove gently, let the old horse
come to a walk; and at last, throwing himself back into the
corner of the chaise, so as to have a better look at his
companion, he said:

'Does daylight and rest make a difference, and are you
inclined to trust me with the explanation of what happened
last night? I should be grateful.'

He could see now with what extreme effort she had done her
work of execution--lip and chin were in a tremor.

'It was no want of trust, Mr. Rollo--I meant you should know.
But--I could not tell you first,' she said rather timidly. 'I
thought, perhaps, you would take the trouble to come in and
hear me tell Mr. Falkirk.'

'Thank you,' he said, 'I _am_ grateful.' And no more passed on
the subject until the chaise reached the cottage.


CHAPTER XXII.

A REPORT.


Just glancing round at her companion to make sure that he
followed, taking off her hat as she went, Hazel passed swiftly
into the cottage and into Mr. Falkirk's study, to the foot of
his couch--and there stood still. Very unlike the figure of
last evening,--in the simplest pale Summer dress, with no
adornment but her brown hair, and yet as Mr. Falkirk looked,
he thought he has never seen her look so lovely. She was
surely changing fast; the old girlish graces were taking to
themselves the richer and stronger graces of womanhood; and
like those evening flowers that open and unfold and gather
sweetness if you but turn aside for a moment, so she seemed to
have altered, even since her guardian's last look. The broad
gipsy hanging from her hand, her long eyelashes drooped,--so
she stood. Mr. Falkirk looked and took the effect of all this
in a glance two seconds long, during which, something held his
tongue. Then as his eye caught the figure that entered
following her, it darted towards him a look of sudden surprise
and suspicion. Than changed, however, almost as soon, and his
eyes came back to his ward. But there is no doubt Mr. Falkirk
scowled.

'So, Miss Hazel,' he began, in his usual manner, 'you found
you could not manage other people's carriages last night?'

'Not the right ones, sir. Will you ask Mr. Rollo to sit down,
Mr. Falkirk? It is due to me that he should hear all I have to
say.'

'It is not due to anybody that you should say it standing,'
said Rollo, wheeling up into convenient position the easiest
chair that the room contained. She made him a slight sign of
acknowledgement, but yielded only so far as to lay her hand on
the chair back. Probably it was pleasant to touch something.
Rollo stepped back to the mantlepiece and stood there, but not
touching it or anything.

'It appears to me, Miss Hazel,' said the recumbent master of
the house, 'that the invitation must come from you.'

'I have not been invited myself, sir, yet.'

'I do not recollect inviting you to be seated yesterday, my
dear; is to-day different from yesterday?'

'Unless I have forgotten the frown which welcomed me then,
sir. I suppose you have but a faint idea of the looming up of
your brows just now.'

'What?' said Mr. Falkirk. 'Don't you know, Miss Hazel, a man's
brows are not within his range of vision? and I deny that he
is responsible for them. Am I frowning now?'

'Not quite so portentously, sir.'

'Then you need not stand so particularly, need you? I wonder,
if I looked so fierce, how Rollo dared to offer you the
civility of a chair in my presence; but people are different.'

'But I cannot sit there,' she said, with a glance towards the
bringer of the chair, as she passed by its reposeful depths.
'Not now. If Mr. Rollo will make himself comfortable in his
own way, I will in mine.' And Hazel brought a foot cushion to
the couch and sat down there; a little turned away from the
third member of the party; who however did not change his
position.

'Is there business?' said Mr. Falkirk glancing from one to the
other.

The girl gave him a swift glance of wonder.

'You used to think it was business, sir, to know what had
become of me. Did you sleep well last night, Mr. Falkirk?'

'Why should I, any more than you?' said Mr. Falkirk in his old
fashion of growling. 'Day is the proper time for sleeping, in
the fashionable world.'

It made her restless--this keeping off the subject of which her
thoughts were full. Didn't he mean to ask any questions?

'Why should not I have slept, sir?--if you come to that. The
fashionable world was not to hold me beyond eleven.'

'So I understood, and endeavoured to stipulate,' said Mr.
Falkirk, 'but I am told you were so late in returning that you
would not come home, and preferred, somewhat inexplicably,
disturbing Miss Maryland to disturbing me.'

'Is that what you think?' she answered, simply. 'That I broke
my word? Mr. Falkirk, I began returning as you say, at a
quarter past eleven.'

'I never expected you to get off before that, my dear. Then
what was the matter?'

The girl hesitated a moment, and then one of her witch looks
flashed through in spite of everything.

'I fell into Charybdis, sir, that was all.'

'I do not remember any such place between here and
Merricksdale,' said Mr. Falkirk. 'Was it enchantment, my
dear?' But his face was less careless than his words. Hers
grew grave again at once; and, wasting no more time, Miss
Kennedy addressed herself to business.

'I had arranged it all with Miss Bird,' she said, 'on the way
there. She had a headache and was glad of an excuse to get
away early. It was "a small party," I found, when you were in
the house and the rest were out of doors, but otherwise
everybody was there--and nearly everybody else. The trees were
all lights and flowers; and supper tables stood ready from the
first; and you know what the moon was. So altogether,' said
Miss Hazel, 'it was hard to remember anything about time, and
especially to find out. I fancied that Mrs. Merrick had told
about my going early,--watches seemed so very uncertain, and so
many of them had stopped at nine o'clock. It was only by a
chance overhearing that I knew when it was half-past ten. I
lost just a few minutes then, manoeuvring,--for I did not want
"everybody" to see me to the carriage; but when I had vanished
into the house, and found Mrs. Merrick, Miss Bird was not
there. She had gone home an hour before, her head being worse,
they said.'

Mr. Falkirk said nothing, but his thick brows grew together
again.

'Mrs. Merrick said it was not the least matter; her coachman
unfortunately was sick, but fifty people would be only too
happy. I said everybody but me wished to stay late,--O, no, not
at all!--here was Mr. May, going in five minutes, with his
sister. They would be "delighted". I could not well tell her,
sir,' said Wych Hazel, with a look at her guardian, 'all that
occurred to me in the connection, but I suppose I negatived
Mr. May in my face, for Mrs. Merrick went on. "Mr. Morton,
then,--the most luxurious coach in the county." He too was
going at once--if I did. Or, if I did not mind the walk, her
brother-in-law would take charge of me at any moment with
pleasure.'

Certainly Mr. Falkirk outdid himself in scowling, at this
point.

'Well--I must get home somehow,' she said with another glance,--
'and the coach would never do, and the phaeton was tabooed.
But I knew Mrs. Merrick's sister was Mrs. Blake; and so,
thinking of the old doctor, I said at once that I would walk,
and ran upstairs for my cloak. And then I found out,' said
Wych Hazel slowly, 'that the are two sorts of brothers-in-
law.'

Nobody interrupted her, nor spoke when she paused. The little
room was very still, except from the movements the girl made
herself.

'This was the wrong one. No old doctor Blake at all, but a
younger brother of Gen. Merrick. What could I do?' she said,
with a half appealing look that went for a second further than
her guardian. 'Already my promise was in peril; and there was
Mr. Morton beseeching me into his coach--and I could not get up
a fuss.' It was very pretty and characteristic, the
unconscious way in which she brought in--and left out--the third
one in the room. Sometimes forgetting everybody but her
guardian, and giving him details that were plainly meant for
his ears alone; then, with a sudden blush and stop,
remembering that there was another listener standing by. On
such occasions she would generally turn her face a little more
away and out of sight, and then begin again, in a tone that
meant to keep clear of all further special confidences in that
direction. The third member of the party stood perfectly still
and made no remark whatever.

'Well?' said Mr. Falkirk, with rather a short breath, as the
girl paused.

'There was nothing left for me but the walk--unless a fuss, and
a half dozen more standing round. Then Mr. Morton said he
should walk, too, at least as far as the cross-road, and let
the carriage follow at a foot pace in case I should turn
weary. If he had been half as anxious about my weariness as he
professed,' said the girl, with a curl of her lips, 'he would
have tried how fast his horses could go for once, with him
behind them. But I could not tell him that any plainer than I
did.'

'You tried to make him drive and leave you?' said Mr. Falkirk.

'I tried to make him let me alone, sir,' said the girl
flushing. 'As to the way, I made no suggestions. So we walked
on, and Mr. Morton made himself exceedingly--disagreeable.'

'Too officious? Or too presumptuous? He's an ass!' said Mr.
Falkirk, who was plainly getting restive. 'Which, Hazel?'

'Unbearable I called it, sir. I was in no mood for nice
definitions. And I couldn't have been tired _then_ if we had
walked through the moonlight straight on to the moon! But--I
had been lectured so much about self-control' (an invisible
glance went here) 'that, somehow, he seemed to keep his
patience the better, the more I lost mine. I never remember
your telling me, sir, that my wilful moods were particularly
becoming, but I began to think it must be so; and actually
thought of trying a little complaisance.' Whereat, Miss Hazel
brought herself to a sudden stop.

'My dear!' said Mr. Falkirk. 'What was the other man about?'

'He was walking on the other side,' said Hazel, her voice
changing. 'But he left me to Mr. Morton, in effect, and
scarcely said three words all this time. I trusted his
thoughts were too busy with Miss Powder, to notice what went
on near by.'

'This is what comes of what you erroneously term dancing on
the branches of trees!' said Mr. Falkirk, in a great state of
disgust. 'But I have no idea I should have gone to that
woman's if I had been free. More comes of it than I reckoned
upon, or than six weeks will see me through. Well, you got rid
of him at last, I suppose; and walked all the way to Dr.
Maryland's in your slippers!'

'My dear Mr. Falkirk!--slippers at an out-door party! Yes, I
"got rid of him," as you say, when we reached the turning to
Morton Hollow,' Hazel went on, rather slowly, the shadow
coming into her tone again. 'And then, after that, I found out
why my other companion had been so silent.'

'Found out! He had not been taking too much?'

'I told you the supper tables stood ready all the evening,'
said the girl, sinking her voice; 'and--it was plain--now--what
he had found there.'

The silence now, rather than any words, bade her go on. She
caught her breath a little, mastering her excitement.

'I knew, presently, what I must do. And when. You have told
me, sir, sometimes, that I was too hasty to resolve and to
do,--I had to be both now.'

'What did you do?' said her guardian.

'I must get away. And on the instant. For, just beyond, the
woods ceased, and there was a long stretch of open road. I
thought, in that second, that my cloak might be caught. So,
with my free hand I unfastened it--I don't know how I ever did
it!' said the girl, excitedly, 'unless, as Byo says, mamma's
prayers were round me!--but I slipped the cloak from my
shoulders and tore away my other hand, and sprang into the
woods.'

They could almost hear her heart beat, as she sat there.

'Into the woods alone!' cried Mr. Falkirk. 'Then--Go on, my
dear,' he said, his voice falling into great gentleness.

'Things came so fast upon me then!' she said with a shiver. 'I
had said, in that moment, "I can but try,"--and now I felt that
if you try--some things--you must succeed. To fail, then, would
be just a game of hide-and-seek. That was the first thought. I
must keep ahead, if it killed me. And then--instantly--I knew
that to do that I must not run!'--

'What _did_ you do?' said Mr. Falkirk.

'I might not be the fastest; and, if I ran, I should maybe not
know just where--he--was,--nor when the pursuit was given up. I
must pass from shadow to shadow; moving only when he moved;
keeping close watch; until he got tired and went back.'

Hazel leaned her head on her hands, as if the mere
recollection were all she could bear.

'My dear!--exclaimed Mr. Falkirk. 'Did you keep up the game
long?'

'I do not know, sir,' she said, wearily; 'it seemed--' she
stopped short,--then went on:

'I knew my dress was dark enough to pass notice; and as softly
as I could I rolled up my white cloak and took off my gloves,
lest any chance light might fall on them. My steps were
steady--the others not: so far I had the advantage. Several
times I heard my name--I think the surprise must have sobered
him a little, for he called to me that that was not the road.
But how long it went on, I cannot tell.'

'Till he gave it up?'

'Yes. At last, I saw him go back to the road, and heard his
tread there, turning back the way we had come. Past me. And
again I had to wait. Only I crept to the edge of the trees,
where I could see far down the moonlight, and watch the one
moving shadow there, that it did not turn off again among the
shadows where I stood. And then I began to think I could not
go on towards home along that open stretch before me,--for at
least a mile there were only fields and fences on either hand.
I had noticed it when we drove along in the evening. I could
not go back towards Mrs. Merrick's. Then I remembered, in my
ride upon Vixen, finding a short cut from this road to one
from Dr. Maryland's. And I thought if I could once get to
that, I should find unbroken woodland, where I could pass
along unseen. For that, however, I must cross the road--in the
full, clear light. And what that was!--'

'But I went safe,' she began again, 'and reached the shadows
on the other side before there came sounds upon the road once
more, and the full stream of late people began to come
rattling down from Merricksdale.'

'Yes!'--Mr. Falkirk's word was rather breathless.

'At first, when I saw the first carriage, I thought I would
speak and claim protection. But that held only men. And then
came others on foot--and some that I knew. And it seemed to me,
that instead of speaking I almost shrank into a shadow myself.
And when there came a little interval, so that I dared move, I
sprang away again, and went through the woods as fast as I
could go, and go softly. The belt is not broad there, I
suppose,' she said after another pause; 'and I reached the
other road and went on while in the darkness, along the edge.
But I think by this time I must have been tired, I grew so
suddenly trembling and unsteady. And the night was so still,
and yet I seemed to hear steps everywhere. I could not bear it
any longer; and I thought I would just be quiet and wait for
the day. Only--so far my wits served me yet--I must once more
cross the road; for the moon was sinking westward now, and the
level rays came in about my feet.'

'I thought I could not do it at first,' she said, with a voice
that told more than the words,--'go out into that stream of
light; but then I did; and hid myself in the branches of a
great hemlock, and waited there.'

'And then I found Mr. Rollo,--and I knew that I might trust
him.'

With which most unconscious full-sized compliment, the girl
crossed her arms upon her lap, and laid her face down upon
them, and was still.

'How did she found you?' demanded Mr. Falkirk with
unceremonious energy. The answer was in an undertone:

'I found her.'

Mr. Falkirk was silent again.

'No,' said Wych Hazel, without raising her head, and again not
stopping to measure her words. 'You would have stood there
till this time, if I had not spoken!'

'Would I?' said Rollo.

'And how came you to be there at all at that time of night?'
said Mr. Falkirk.

'On my way from the cars.'

'Cars, where?'

'Henderson.'

'Walk from Henderson!' said Mr. Falkirk.

'Save time. I wanted to be here to-day.' The answers were all
short and grave, as a man speaks who has no words that he
wants to say.

'And Mr. Rollo thought', said Hazel, looking up, 'that it was
better for me to come home from Dr. Maryland's than from the
woods. And--when he spoke of it--I supposed you would say that
too, Mr. Falkirk.'

But Mr. Falkirk vouchsafed no corroboration of this opinion.

'Did I do well, sir?' she said a little eagerly, but meaning
now the whole night's work. 'Did I do ill? Was I a bit like
your old ideal--"a woman" and "brave"? Or was I only a girl,
and very foolish?' They were so silent, these men!--it tried
her. Did they, in their worldly wisdom, see any better way out
of her hard places, than her seventeen years' inexperience had
found, at such a cost? The brown eyes looked searchingly at
Mr. Falkirk, and again for an instant went beyond him to Mr.
Rollo.

'Answer, Mr. Falkirk!' said the younger man.

'My dear,' said Wych Hazel's guardian, 'if I had been a
quarter as much a man as you have proved yourself a woman,
your bravery never would have been so tried.'

'And the bravery was as much as the womanliness!' said the
other, in the short, terse way of all his words this
afternoon; no air of compliment whatever hanging about the
words.

She answered with only a deep flush of pleasure, and eyes that
went down now, and a smile just playing round the corners of
her mouth--the first that had been there that afternoon. It may
be remarked that there was no pleasure in either of the other
faces.


'Who knows about this?' said Mr. Falkirk, suddenly.

'Nobody,' said Rollo.

'Not Miss Maryland?'

'I could answer for her; but she knows nothing.'

Wych Hazel looked up, listening. It was interesting to hear
somebody else talk now. Talk was stayed, however. Both men
were thinking; their thoughts did not run easily into spoken
words. Or not while she was present; for after a sudden
excursion up stairs to see what notes and messages might need
attention, on returning she found the two deep in talk; Rollo
seated near the head of Mr. Falkirk's couch, and bending
towards him. He sprang up as Wych hazel came in and took
leave; shaking Mr. Falkirk's hand cordially and then clasping
Wych Hazel's. For the first time then a gleam of his usual gay
humour broke on his lips and in his eye, as he said softly:

'I should have made you speak before that!'


CHAPTER XXIII.

KITTY FISHER.


Nothing but the most superb propriety was to be expected at
Mrs. Powder's; nevertheless Wych Hazel went escorted by Prim
and Rollo in Dr; Maryland's rockaway. Dr. Maryland himself had
been persuaded to the dinner, and it was on his arm Miss
Kennedy made her entrance upon the company. Something unlike
anything the doctor had ever taken charge of before,--in a
dress of tea-rose colour this time, and with only tea-roses
for trimming.

It was not a large company assembled for dinner, though
everybody was expected in the evening. This was a different
affair from Merricksdale; on old proud family name in the
mistress of the mansion; old fashioned respectability and
modern fashion commingled in the house and entertainment; the
dinner party very strictly chosen. Beyond that fact, it was
not perhaps remarkable. After dinner Dr. Maryland went home;
and gayer and younger began to pour in. Following close upon
Mrs. Merrick's entertainment, this evening too had the
adornment of the full moon; and as this party also was an out-
door one, as much as people chose to have it so, the adornment
was material. A large pleasure ground around the house, half
garden, half shrubbery, was open to promenaders; and at
certain points there were lights and seats and music and
refreshments; the last two not necessarily together. On this
pleasure ground opened the windows of the drawing room and to
this led the steps of the piazza; and so it came to pass in
the course of the evening that the house was pretty well
deserted of all but the elderly part of the guests.

In this state of things, said elderly portion of the company
might as well be at home for all the care they are able to
bestow on the younger. Wandering in shadow and light, in and
out through the winding walks, blending in groups and
scattered in couples, the young friends of Mrs. Powder did
pretty much as they pleased. But one thing Wych Hazel had
cause to suspect as the evening wore on, that though her
guardian proper was fast at-home, she had an active actual
guardian much nearer to her, and in fact never very far off
for long at a time. Indeed he paraded no attentions, either
before Wych Hazel's eyes or the eyes of the public; but if she
wanted anything, Rollo found it out; if she needed anything,
he was at hand to give it. His care did not burden her, nor
make itself at all conspicuous to other people; nevertheless
she surely could not but be conscious of it. This by the way.

Dr. Maryland had not been gone long; the new arrivals were
just pouring in; when a seat beside Wych Hazel was taken by
Mr. Nightingale.

'You were at Merricksdale the other night?' he said after the
first compliments.

'Yes, for a while.'

'I knew you would be. I was in despair that I could not get
there;--but engagements--contretemps--held us fast. I see now how
much I lost.'

Copyright (c) 2007. topmasterworks.com. All rights reserved.