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Susan and Anna Warner - Wych Hazel

S >> Susan and Anna Warner >> Wych Hazel




'What _is_ that one finger for?' said Primrose.

'Do you ask that, Rosy? To show that she has nothing earthly
to lean upon. She just touches the pillar, as much as to say
it is broken and of no use to her. Perhaps her confidence is
in that slumbering lion,--Is that another representation of
fortitude?'

He had hid Sir Joshua's picture with an engraving of
Delaroche's Marie Antoinette leaving the Tribunal.

'She knew what it meant, I should think, if anybody did. But
most fortitude--real fortitude--be always unhappy?' said Hazel
looking perplexedly at the picture.

Rollo turned back to the Reynolds. 'You were both wrong about
this,' said he; 'at least I think so. Real fortitude _does_
figuratively, go helmeted and plumed. She endures so perfectly
that she does not seem to endure. In this representation the
lion shows you the mental condition which lies hid behind that
fair, stern front. Now is Marie Antoinette like that?' He
turned the pictures again.

'I cannot tell!' said Wych Hazel. 'One minute her fortitude
looks just like pride,--and then when you remember all she had
to bear, it's not strange if she called up pride to help her.
But it is not my ideal yet.'

'I think it _is_ pride,' said Rollo. 'So it looks to me. Pride
and grief facing down death and humiliation. Marie Theresa's
daughter and Louis Capet's queen acknowledging no degradation
before her enemies--giving them no triumph that she could help.
But that is not my ideal either.'

He brought out another print.

'I always like that,' said Primrose.

'I do not know it,' said Wych Hazel.

'Don't you? it is very common. It is the eve of St.
Bartholomew. This Catholic girl wants to tie a white favour
round he lover's arm, to save him from the massacre soon to
begin. She has had the misfortune to love a Huguenot. White
favours, you remember, were the mark by which the Catholics
were to know each other in the confusion.'

'And he will not let her. Was it a misfortune, I wonder?'

'What?' said Primrose.

'To love somebody so much nobler than herself. How gentle he
is in his earnestness!'

'Don't be hard upon her,' said Rollo. 'Are you sure you
wouldn't do so in her place?'

'No,--' she said, looking gravely up at him.

'She knew it was death to go without that white handkerchief.'

'But,' said Primrose softly, 'wouldn't you rather have him die
true, than live dishonoured?'

'I think I should have tried,' said Wych Hazel,--'knowing I
should fail. And then I should have thrown away my own favour,
and gone with him wherever he went.'

'He wouldn't have let you do that either,' said Rollo.

'Then he would not have loved me as I loved him,' said the
girl, very decidedly.

'He'd have been a pretty fellow!' said Rollo, as he turned the
next print. It was a contrast to the St. Bartholomew; a
Madonna and child, from Fra Bartholomeo, at which they were
all content to look silently. Rollo began to talk, then,
instead of asking questions, and made himself very
interesting. So much he knew of art matters, so many a story
and legend he could tell about the masters, and so well he
could help the less initiated to enjoy and understand the
work. So letting himself out in a sort of play-fashion, the
portfolio proved the nucleus of a delightful hour's
entertainment. At the end of that time a turn was given to
things by the coming in of an old black woman with a very
high, coloured turban on her head and a teakettle and a
chafing dish of coals in her hands. Rollo shut up his
portfolio.

'What is your view, practically, of things at present, Miss
Kennedy?'

'Mr. Falkirk says I never took a practical view of things in
my life, Mr. Rollo. The impracticable view seems to be, that
it is tea time and I ought to go home.'

'What do you think of the plan of letting Mr. Falkirk know
where you are?'

'Yes, I ought to do that,' said his ward, 'Where is Dingee?--I
will send him right off.'

'Will you write, or shall I?' said Rollo, drawing out paper
and pen ready on one of the tables.

She glanced at him as if in momentary wonder that he should
offer to write her despatch, then ran off the most summary
little note, twisted it into a knot of complications, and
again asked for Dingee. Rollo gently but saucily put his own
fingers upon the twisted note and bore it away.

The business of the tea-making and preparing was going on; and
both Primrose and her old assistant bustled about the tea
table, getting things ready and Dr. Maryland's chair in its
right place. A quiet bustle, very pleasant in the eyes of Wych
Hazel, with all its homely and sweet meanings. The light had
softened a little, and still came through a grey veil of rain;
odours of rose and sweet-briar and evening primroses floated
in on the warm, moist air, and mingled with the steam of the
tea-kettle and the fume in the chafing-dish; and the patter,
patter of rain drops, and the dash of wet leaves against each
other, were a foil to the tea-kettle's song. Wych Hazel looked
on, musingly, till Rollo came back and took her round the room
looking at books. Then offering her his arm, he somewhat
suddenly brought her face to face with some one just entering
by the door.

An old gentleman; Wych Hazel knew at once who it must be.
Middle-sized, stout, with rather thin locks of white hair, and
a face not otherwise remarkable than for its look of habitual
high thought and pure goodness. It took but a moment to see so
much of him. She stopped short, and then came close up to him.

'Is this your charge, Dane? Is this little Wych Hazel?' he
went on more tenderly, and folding her in his arms. 'My dear,'
he said, kissing her brow, 'I hope you will be as good a woman
as your mother was! I am very glad to see you!--very glad
indeed!'

She did not answer at first, looking up into his face with a
wistful, searching look that was a little eager; standing
quite still, as if the enclosing arms were very pleasant to
her.

'Yes sir,' she said, 'I am Wych Hazel. But why are you glad to
see me?'

'My dear, I knew your mother and father; and I have a great
interest in you. I am told you will be queen of a large court
up yonder at Chickaree.'

She laughed a little, and coloured, looking down, then back
into his face again.

'Will you like me, sir, all you can?'

'All you will give me a chance for. So you must let us see you
a great deal; for affection must grow, you know; it cannot be
commanded. Sit down, my dear, sit down; Primrose is ready for
us.'

It was a right pleasant meal! There was no servant waiting;
the little informalities of helping themselves suited well
with the quiet home ease and the song of the tea-kettle.
Primrose made toast for her father, and Rollo blew the coals
to a red heat to hasten the operation. Dr. Maryland sometimes
talked and sometimes was silent; and his talk was of an
absolute simplicity that neither knew in his own nor imagined
in other people's minds any reserves of dark corners. Primrose
talked little, but was lovingly watchful not only of her
father, but of Wych Hazel, and Rollo too; who on his part was
watchful enough over everybody.

'And my dear,' said Dr. Maryland, 'why did you not bring Mr.
Falkirk with you?'

'Well, sir, to begin--I did not know I was coming myself! I was
out riding, and the rain came--and I jumped off into the first
open door I could see. And then Miss Maryland let me stay.'

'But Mr. Falkirk, my dear--where's he?'

'Safe at home, sir. We have been seeking our fortune together,
but to-night we got separated.'

'Mr. Falkirk went back and left you?' said Dr. Maryland,
looking surprised.

'No, sir, I went ahead and left him. That is,' she added,
smothering a laugh, 'he did not set out at all.'

'I thought--I thought, you said you were together?'

'Only in a general way, sir. On all special occasions we
divide.'

'What did you say you were doing? seeking your fortune?'

'I set out to seek mine,' said Wych Hazel, 'and of course poor
Mr. Falkirk has to go along to look on. He doesn't help me one
bit.'

'To seek your fortune, my dear?' said Dr. Maryland, looking
benignly curious; 'What sort of a fortune are you looking
for?'

'Why I don't know, sir. If I knew,--it would be half found
already, wouldn't it?' said the girl.

'But my dear--did Mr. Falkirk never tell you that fortunes are
never found ready made?'

'He objected, because he said mine was ready made--but that
made no difference from my point of view. And then he said he
thought our road would "end in a squirrel track, and run up a
tree." And do you know, sir,' said Wych Hazel, the hidden
merriment flashing out all over her face, 'that was what it
really did!'

'Did what, my dear?'

'I beg your pardon, sir,' she said, trying to steady her voice
and bring out words instead of a burst of laughter,--'but--that
is a wild Western expression, which Mr. Falkirk used to
signify that we should get into difficulties.'

'Why did Mr. Falkirk think you would get into difficulties?'--
Dr. Maryland had not found the scent yet.

'I don't think he has much opinion of my prudence, sir,--and
believes firmly that every one who goes off the highway finds
rough ground. Now I like a jolt now and then--it wakes one up.'

'Do you want to find rough ground, my dear?'

'I don't mean really rough, sir, in one sense, but uneven--
varied, and stirring, and uncommonplace. It seems to me that I
have a whole set of energies that never come into play upon
ordinary occasions. I should weary to death of the lives some
people lead--three meals a day, and a cigar, and a newspaper. I
think I should fast once a week, for variety--and smoke my
cigar wrong end first--if there are two ends to it.'

'I heard a lady say the other day, that there was no end to
them,'--observed Rollo.

Dr. Maryland looked at her on his part, smiling, and quite
awake now to the matter in hand. Yet he was silent a minute
before speaking.

'Have you laid your plan, my dear? I should very much like to
know what it is!'

'No, sir,' she said, shaking her head with a deprecatory
little laugh. 'Of course I have not! People in fairy tales
never do.'

'Life is not a fairy tale, Hazel,' said Dr. Maryland, shaking
his head a little. 'My dear, you are a real woman. Did you
ever think what you would try to do in the world?--what you
would try to do with your life, I mean?'

'Do with it?' the girl repeated, her brown eyes on the
Doctor's face as if looking for his meaning. 'I think, I
should like to enjoy it, if I could. And it has been very
commonplace, lately, sir. Mr. Falkirk don't pet me and play
with me as he used to--and he won't let me play with him; not
much.'

The smile which quivered on Dr. Maryland's face changed and
passed into a sort of sweet gravity.

'There is one capital way to get out of commonplace,' he said;
'but it isn't play, my dear. If you set about doing what God
would have you to do with yourself, there will be no dullness
in your life, and no lack of enjoyment, either.'

She looked at him again--then down; but made no answer.

'Somebody has written an essay, that I read lately,' Dr.
Maryland went on--'an essay on the monotony of piety. Poor man!
he did not know what he was talking about. The glorious
liberty of the children of God!--that was something beyond his
experience;--and the joy of their service. It is what redeems
everything else from monotony. It glorifies what is
insignificant, and dignifies what is mean, and lifts what is
low, and turns the poor little business steps of every day
into rounds of Heaven's golden ladder. I verily think I could
have hanged myself long ago, for the very monotony of all
things else, if it had not been for the life and glory of
religion!'

'Why papa!' said Primrose.

'I would, my dear, I do think.' He was silent a moment; then
subsiding from the excited fire with which he had spoken, he
turned to Wych Hazel and went on gently,--

'What else do you want to do, my dear, that is not to be done
in that track? you want adventures?'

'Yes, sir,' she answered, without looking up, half hesitating,
a little grave. 'I think I do. And more people about,--people
to love me, and that I can love. Of course I love Mr.
Falkirk,' she added, correcting herself, 'very much; but that
is different. And there's nobody else but the servants.'

'O do come here!' cried Primrose; 'and love us.'

'I do not wonder Mr. Falkirk gives no help,' said Rollo, a
little quizzically.

'Will you try Primrose's expedient, my dear?' said Dr.
Maryland, very benignly. 'Half your requisition you will
certainly find. Whether you can love us, I don't know; but
there's no knowing without trying.'

She gave one of her sweet childish looks of answer to both the
first and last speaker; but Mr. Rollo was favoured with a
small reproof.

'You must not speak so of Mr. Falkirk,' she said. 'He has been
the kindest possible friend to me. And I think he loves me
wonderfully, considering how I have tried his patience. Just
think what it is for a grave, quiet, grown-up, sensible man,
to have the plague of a girl like me! Very few men would stand
it at all, Mr. Roll; but Mr. Falkirk never said a rough word
to me in his life.'

She was so grave, so innocent, so ignorant in it all, the
effect was indescribably funny.

'I should think very few men would stand it,' said Rollo,
composedly; but Primrose and her father smiled.

'Mr. Falkirk is an admirable man,' said Dr. Maryland. 'You are
a good witness for him, Hazel.'

'If I would only do all he wants me to!' she said with a
slight shake of the head. 'But I cannot, and he says I don't
know what I want. But Dr. Maryland--all the nice, proper people
I have ever seen, live on such a dead level--it would kill me.
They think dancing is wrong, and Italian a loss of time, and
"it's a pity to waste my young years upon German." And they
can't talk of a book, but some life of a missionary who was
eaten by cannibals,--I was very sorry he went there, to be
sure, but that didn't make me want to hear about it, nor to go
myself. They are just like peach trees trimmed up and nailed
to a wall, and I'd rather be wild Wych Hazel in the woods,
though it's of no sort of use, and nobody cares for it!' Dr.
Maryland might guess from this frank out-pouring, how seldom
it was that the stream of young thoughts found such an exit,
how complete was the trust which called it forth. She had
quite forgotten her tea. And the doctor forgot his; and bent
his gray head towards her brown one.

'But suppose, my dear,' (how different this from Mr. Falkirk's
'my dear,')--'suppose the bush were a conscious thing; and
suppose that while it remained in the woods and remained
entirely itself, it could yet by being submitted to some sweet
influence be made so fragrant that its influence should be
known all through the forest; and its nuts, instead of being
wild, useless things, should every one of them bring a gift of
healing or of life to the hands that should gather them? I
would rather it should stay in the woods;--and I never think
anything trained against a wall is as good as that which has
the sun all round it.'

Wych Hazel looked at him with no sort of doubt in her eyes
that he had been "submitted to some sweet influence." And
perhaps it was the image he had drawn, that brought a little
tremour round her lips, as she answered:

'I do not want to be a wild, bitter, useless thing,--maybe that
is what Mr. Falkirk is afraid of, too.'

'I believe,' said Dr. Maryland, 'that He who made all the
varieties in the world, and made men as various, never meant
that one should take the form or place of another. If it fills
its own, and fills it perfectly, it glorifies Him; and does
just what it was meant to do.'

'Not to mention the fact,' said Rollo, 'that Wych Hazel could
not conveniently personate a pine tree or Primrose a
blackthorn.'

But at the entrance of this gentleman as Privy Counsellor,
Wych Hazel withdrew her affairs from public notice; however
much inclined to vindicate her power of personating what she
liked, especially pine trees. She dropped the subject and took
up her bread and butter. And so did Dr. Maryland, for a while;
but he eat thoughtfully. There was a pause, during which
Primrose was affectionately solicitous over Wych Hazel's cup
of tea, and Rollo piled strawberries upon her plate. Tea had
been rather neglected.

'And what have you been doing, Hazel, all these past twelve
years?' said the doctor, breaking out afresh. 'Twelve years!--
it is twelve years. What have you done with them, my dear?'

'I was at school, you know, sir, for a while, and then I had
no end of tutors and teachers at home.' She drew a long
breath.

'And what are you going to do with the next twelve years?--if
you should live so long. What are you going to try to do with
them, I mean?'

'I want to try to have a good time, sir.'

'And you will be a queen, and hold your court at Chickaree?'

She laughed--her pretty, free laugh of pleasure.

'So Mr. Falkirk says. Only he does not call me a queen--he
calls me a mouse!'

Dr. Maryland laughed too, at her or with her, a rare thing for
him, but returned to his grave tenderness of look and tone.
'Ah, little Hazel,' he said, 'you are in a dangerous place, my
child, with your court up there. Do you know, that when you
and the world you want to see, come together,--either you will
change it, or it will change you?--that is why I asked you what
you were going to do with the next twelve years. That was a
great word of Paul, when his years were almost over,--"I have
fought a good fight; I have kept the faith. Henceforth there
is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord,
the righteous Judge shall give me at that day!" '

He was silent, but so grave, so sweet, so rapt, had been the
tone of the last words, that they all kept silence likewise.
Dr. Maryland's head fell, he seemed to be seeing something not
before him; presently he went on speaking to himself.

' "And not to me only,--but to all them that love his
appearing."--My dear,' suddenly to Wych Hazel,--'will you love
his appearing, when it comes?'

She?--how could she tell? to whom not only the question but
almost the very thought were new. He did not pursue that
subject. Presently he left the table and stood up, or walked
up and down behind it; while under the sense of his talk and
his thought and his presence, they were all quiet; finishing
their supper as docilely as so many children. And a reflection
from him was on all their faces, making each one more pure and
bright than its own wont.

He stayed with the young people after tea, instead of going to
his study; and the evening was full of grave interest, which
also no one wished less grave. He talked much, sometimes with
Wych Hazel, sometimes with Rollo; and Rollo was very amusing
and interesting in meeting his inquiries and remarks about
German universities and university life. The talk flowed on to
other people and things abroad, where Rollo had for some years
lately been. The doctor grew animated and drew him out, and
every now and then drew Wych Hazel in, giving her much of his
attention and perhaps scrutiny also, though that was veiled.

The talk kept them up late. As they were about separating for
the night Rollo asked Wych Hazel if she had found any cats at
Chickaree?

'What do you mean?' she said quickly. 'O--I remember'--and the
light danced over her face. 'I haven't had much time to find
anything. What did you do with my poor kitten up on the
mountain, Mr. Rollo?'

'I was going to ask you whether you would like to see an old
friend.'

'Yes, to be sure. You do not mean that my little pussy is
here?'

'You shall have her to-morrow.'


CHAPTER XIII.

THE GREY COB.


Morning has come, and the Queen of Chickaree must return to
hold her court. Little guesses the Queen what a court is
gathering for her. While she is quietly eating her breakfast
at Dr. Maryland's, Mme. Lasalle is ordering her horses, to
make a call upon her in the course of the morning, and Mr.
Kingsland is thinking in what cravat he shall adorn himself
when he goes to do the same thing in the afternoon. For Mr.
Kingsland has arrived at home, where he and his old father
keep a bachelor sort of household in a decayed old house at
one extremity of Crocus. They have a respectable name, folks
say, but not wealth to set it off; and the household is small.
The same little boy who rubs down Mr. Kingsland's horse waits
upon table, and there is nobody else but a housekeeper. But
Mr. Morton is thinking he will call too; and Mr. Morton is a
man of means; he owns a large part of Mill Hollow, called also
Morton Hollow. He occupies a great old brick house in the
neighbourhood of the Hollow, and keeps it in excellent repair,
and the grass of the lawn is well shaven. Mr. Morton is well
off and has servants enough, but he has years enough too; Mr.
Morton must be forty. Nevertheless he thinks he will call.

Then there is Mrs. ex-Governor Powder also; she lives in a
very good house, and in an irreproachable manner, at a fine
place called Valley Garden, ten miles off. Mrs. Powder is an
excellent woman, a stately lady, knows what is what, and has
been a beauty, and held a court of her own. Indeed she is of a
proud old family, and married a little beneath her when she
married the man who afterwards became Governor Powder. But
what would you have? Women must be married. Mrs. Powder will
come to see Miss Kennedy; she is thinking about it; but
probably she will not come till to-morrow or the day after;
she is not in a hurry. Mme. Lasalle is; and so is the
gentleman of the roses, her nephew. Meanwhile Miss Kennedy
knows nothing of all this, nor how furthermore the Lawyer's
wife and the Doctor's mother (for there is another doctor at
Crocus) are meditating how soon they may ask Miss Kennedy to
dinner or to supper, and how soon it will do to go and ask
her. They are afraid of seeming in a hurry. Meanwhile Miss
Kennedy eats her breakfast.

Breakfast is had in the stone hall, with the doors open front
and rear and the Summer day looking in at them. It is very
pleasant, and the old black woman, Portia, comes and goes
without interfering with the talk at table. The sewing machine
stands at one side of the hall still.

'What new affair have you got there, my daughter?' says the
doctor.

'It's a sewing machine, papa, which Duke has brought me.'

'A sewing machine! What are you going to do with it?'

'Put her work in her pocket, I hope, sir. I am tired of seeing
it in her hand.'

'It is very good of you, Duke; but can she manage it?'

'Not yet, sir. Neither of us can. We are going to find out.'

'Well, what's the advantage of it?'

'I brought it up, sir, in the hope and persuasion that it
would undertake the clothing of all the poor people at Crocus,
and give Rosy time to read philosophy.'

'Why papa,' said Rosy, 'it will do fifteen hundred stitches a
minute!'

'You don't want to do more than that in a day, do you, my
dear?' said the doctor, with an expression of such innocent
amazement, not without some dismay, that they all burst out
laughing; and Dr. Maryland but half enlightened, went off to
his study.

Much before Primrose wished it, the horses came to the door.
Rollo had had his own saddle put upon Vixen, and the grey cob
stood charged with the paraphernalia which should accompany
the mistress of Chickaree. She had gone up to prepare for her
ride, and now came to the front in habit and gauntlets and
whip, the rose branch at her button-hole.

'O,' she said in tones so like a bird that the groom might
have been pardoned for looking up into the maple boughs over
his head to find her; 'you have made a mistake! The other
horse is the one I ride. Will you change the saddles, please?--
I am sorry to give you the trouble!'

The groom would have been in great bewilderment, but that
luckily his master stood there too. The man's look of appeal
was comical, going from one to another. Rollo was looking at
girths and buckles, and did not seem to hear. Wych Hazel
waited--a slight growing doubt on the subject of his deafness
not increasing the pliability of her mood. Then he came
towards her, and asked if she was ready?

'I am--but my horse is not.'

'What is the matter with him?'

'I am very sorry to make any delay, Mr. Rollo, but the saddles
will have to be changed. I can't ride that grey horse!' And
she slipped her hat back and sat down on the doorstep, to
await the process.

'There is no mistake,' said Rollo. 'The horses were saddled by
my order. I told him to give you the grey. You will forgive
me, I hope!'

'Without asking me!' she said, giving him a rather wide-open
look of her eyes, and then in a tone as cool as his own--

'I shall ride Vixen, Mr. Rollo, if I ride at all.'

'I hope you will reconsider that.'

'Mr. Rollo,' she said in her gravest manner, 'you and I seem
fated to see something of each other--so it will save trouble
for you to know at once, that when I say a thing seriously, I
mean it.'

He lifted his hat with the old stately air. But then he smiled
at her.

'Allow me to believe that you have said nothing seriously this
morning?'

Now if Wych Hazel's mood was not pliable, his was the sort of
look to make it so. A calmly good-humoured brow, with a clear
keen eye, and in both all that character of firm strength to
which a woman's temper is apt to give way. If it had been a
question of temper in the ordinary sense. But the lady of
Chickaree had nothing of the sort belonging to her that was
not as sweet as a rose.

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