The Gold of Chickaree

by Susan Warner; Anna Bartlett Warner

CHAPTER XI.

STARLIGHT AND FIRELIGHT.

He went out, probably to fill and put on the kettle himself; and came back with an armful of wood for the fire. In the light of a splendid blaze the four friends sat in a half circle round the fireplace, and the evening was falling gray outside.

'Do you expect they will really set fire to your mills, Duke?'
Primrose asked.

'I do not know what to expect.'

'But I thought they liked you so much?'

'Those are not the people who are talking of lighting up Morton Hollow. Do you know,' he went on to Wych Hazel, 'it is thought by some parties down there, that my doings are so much in want of explanation that the secret is probably to be found in Satanic influence.'

' "If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub," 'said
Prim, with her eyes fixed on the fire.

'And it would not pay to drench the cotton bales on an uncertainty'said Hazel, her eye mentally fixed on one particular bale for which she had a kindness.

'I can't conceive how they should think so, after all, Dane,' said
Primrose.

'It seems unnatural for a man not to take all he can get. Therefore it has not been very difficult, I fancy, to persuade some of the ignorant people that a deep scheme to wrong them must be hid under the apparent plan for righting them. It is easier to believe that than the truth.'

'A little natural envy too,' said Dr. Arthur. 'Just when is this performance to come off?'

'Impossible to guess.Arthur,' said Dane suddenly, 'I want you for my doctor.'

'You have me, sir,' said Dr. Arthur, bending his brows upon his friend. 'What's the matter with you?'

'Do I have you? I want for a permanency.'

'I see. The case promises great interest. Well?Begin with your most unpleasant sensations.'

'You began with them this afternoon,' said Dane gravely. 'The case does possess interest, for it regards the sensations of some fifteen hundred people, or more. I want you to take charge of it;on a salary to be fixed as hereafter agreed upon. What do you say?'

'Thank youI should like it very much,if it were only for the pleasure of working with you. And they want better care than they get.'

'Thank you,' said Rollo in his turn. 'I thought you would, and yet it is a load off my mind.'

'Why it will be delightful,' cried Prim. 'Nothing could be nicer.'

'The next thing is, Arthur, where will you live?'

'Why at home, can't he?'

'No. I will build a house for you, Arthur, if you can put a housekeeper in it.'

'Don't let such a trifle stand in your way,' said Dr. Arthur. 'There'll be one in it when I am there. And when I am not, it's no matter.'

Dane uttered a low whistle, and looked at the other members of the little circle.

'Shews how much he knows about housekeeping!'

'For a particular man, which he is,' said Prim.

'You wouldn't believe it,' said Dane, his eye coming round to Wych Hazel, 'but I shall have to make the tea carefully to-night, because that fellow is here.'

'All which proves that I know how to make it for myself,' said Dr. Arthur composedly. 'But it is mere fudge, Dane, about building a house for me. Get your hands roofed in, and then don't do one other thing at present. I'll live somewhere.'

'Lodge under a hedge, and dine in the top of a beech tree. Where would be a good place?I do not mean, for the beech tree. Somewhere near the spot where the road to the Hollow leaves the Crocus roadthat's about three miles. That would be in the way of everything."

'But Duke,' said Primrose, 'are you in earnest? Couldn't he be at home?'

'Seven miles off, Prim? He was only just in time this afternoon. Arthur, I wish you would draw out a plan of a house that you would like.'

'But who could keep house for him? Prudentia?'

'No,' said Dr. Arthur, 'I cannot manage any prudence but my own.
But Dane, I am in earnest. I want you to let your reserve force rest.
You may reach corners where you will need it all.'

'What are "corners" in mill-work?' said the silent little figure in the depths of the cushioned chair. Dr. Arthur turned to her instantly, listening with almost critical attention while she spoke; but then he drew back and waited for Rollo to give the answer.

'A corner,' said Dane with critical gravity, 'is a place where your path is crossed by another. Which indeed usually makes two corners; perhaps four.'

'What do you do then?'

'Turn. That is, if I cannot go straight on.'

'Therefore you see that with a train of fifteen hundred men, a corner is an awkward place,' said Dr. Arthur.

Wych Hazel went back to her cushions and her pondering, making no reply. And Dr. Arthur, waiting for the answer which came not, took out his pencil and a card and began idly sketching an imaginary house. 'There,' he said, handing it over to Rollo,'see if you can execute that?'Across the house was written:

'Make her talk. I want to hear her.'

'There is another sort of corner,' Dane went on meditatively, after glancing at the card;'a corner where ways end instead of meeting. The corner of a wall, for instance, inside, where there is no way out but to jump the wall.'

'Yes,' said Hazel. 'I thought perhaps that sort existed only in my experience.'

'What is your experience of corners?'

'I have seen two fencesmeet.'

'Yes, but where were you?'

'Mr. Rollo, I am talking seriously. What corners may be "ahead," in this mill-work?'

'None, I hope, that I cannot get round. But if we are to speak seriously, suppose that there should be a sudden failure of orders?'

'So that he could make in two days more than he could sell in six,' said Dr. Arthur, who with arms folded and eyes on the floor was listening keenly.

'But the men could not stop eating just because he stopped selling,' said Hazel, with her usual short run to conclusions.

'Of course,' said Dane laconically.

'Then if the work went on as usual But how long could you do it? That is what Dr. Maryland means,' said Hazel.

'You see the corner.'

Hazel saw it, and retreated again to her own among the cushions.

'I am not in it yet,'said Dane looking at her.

'No. And I should not think you would call any place where you ought to be, "a corner," ' said Hazel, who was generally impartial in her reproofs.

'Not if it was a corner?' said Rollo with the most innocent gravity.

'No.'

She laid her hand up against the side of the chair, leaning her face upon it, watching the fire. Turning slightly, from under the shadow of his own hand, Dr. Arthur studied her.

'Meanwhile, let us consider the plan of the doctor's house. I cannot show you his card, for it is not all quite as straight as Dr. Arthur's plans generally are; but I wish you two ladies would make any suggestions that occur to you; and I will make a note of them.'

'It needn't be a large house, I suppose, Dane,' said Primrose.

'Mem. To be a small house.'

'O hush, Duke!' said Prim. 'That is not a suggestion. But this is; have plenty of closet room.'

'Item; with large closets.'

'Hazel, do tell him something,' said Primrose. 'He is laughing at me.'

Hazel smiled, but she was not much inclined to enter the lists.

'I am sure he has been laughing at me,' she said. 'And I do not know about the houseonly it ought to be perfectly bright and pretty in every way. Because Dr. Maryland will see so much pain in the course of his work, that he ought to find nothing but a welcome when he comes home.'

'Are you satisfied, Arthur?' said Dane, as he gravely added to his notes.

'Quite. One should be, with perfection,' said the doctor. 'If Prim will kindly let me arrange my own closets.'

Prim was silent, and what she was thinking of, this story does not tell; but her next words made rather a bound from these.

'Dane,' she said suddenly, 'is there any necessity for your going down to the mills to-night unless you are sent for?'

'I think it would be proper,' said Dane, making his notes.

'Then you will go?'

'I suppose so.'

'But if you had set men to watch, I should think they might have prevented all the trouble.'

'I did not want to prevent it.'

'Not? Why, Duke?'

'If it is to come, I would rather it should come now, when I am here and expecting it.'

'Is there danger of any rough work?'

'Among the men? I cannot tell.'

'O Duke! if you had set men to watch, I should think they could have put out a fire without you.'

Hazel roused up suddenly. 'Prim, how can you talk so?' she said with quick emphasis. 'Of course he must go!'

Dr. Arthur smiled.

'I do not see the must,' Primrose answered. 'You don't know what a mill-fight is, Hazel.'

The girl shrank back among her cushions. 'But he must go' she repeated, half to herself.

'I do not expect to hear of many more mill-fights in Morton Hollow,' said Dane very calmly. 'What is it, Gyda? Supper? Well, some of our friends here will be very glad of it.'

There was porridge and cream and flad-brod, of course; there was hung beef and honey; altogether it was rather a sumptuous meal. Rollo attended to the coffee on the hearth, and made the tea; as usual did half of the serving himself, and took care that his old nurse should not exert her strength beyond very gentle limits. They voted to disregard the table and keep their places round the fire. So in grand red illumination from the blaze they took their cups of coffee, which Dane filled from the pot on the hearth; and handled their plates of porridge and cream; and but for the night's work in prospect, would have regarded it as a piece of grand fun. To the young men indeed that circumstance was not enough to make it any less than fun, and to one of them it was much more. Gyda, whose little black eyes watched them all keenly, found it a pleasant sight; for the smile on her old lips was as sweet as May. Though indeed Gyda's smile was quite wont to be that. She sat where Rollo placed her and suffered him to attend to her wants; but she said never a word unless spoken to.

It was still not far on in the evening when the supper was disposed of and the room was again in company order. The little circle gathered somewhat closer together. They had been talking gaily, yet something in the social atmosphere hindered conversation from the buoyancy natural to it in happy circumstances; it acted like a wreath of chimney smoke in a damp morning. In a pause which had come, no one knew why, Primrose remarked,

'I wish you would sing something, Duke.'

'Why?'

'Why, because I like to hear you.'

'Yes, do,' said Dr. Arthur. 'Prim's nerves are sadly out of tune.'

'I don't think my nerves are ever out of tune,' Prim answered gently.

'Not when they have work to do,' said Rollo. 'Nor ever at another time, that I know.'

'But you can sing, if I don't want tuning.'

'Certainly. But in all questions that are not of duty, you have to consider the effect.'

The lazy deliberateness with which this was spoken, was at least as provoking as it was comical. Wych Hazel from her place was silently watching them all, her eyes going from one speaker to the other with wide open consideration. Now, her lips just parted and curled and came back to their gravity.

'Go onwill you?' said Dr. Arthur,'I have a perplexing question to decide before to-morrow; and it rather helps me to have somebody make a noise.'

'If you would tell us the question, perhaps it would help us make a noise,' said Dane with the same placid gravity.

'Profound!'said Dr. Arthur. 'Wellgive us something in that line.'

'What line?'

'Original and scientific observation.'

'That's your line. I was thinkinghow would you define "a noise"?'

'Extraneous sounds come pretty near it, with me,' said Dr. Arthur.

'But you wouldn't call music "a noise," ' said Primrose.

'Wouldn't I!When Miss Powder has wandered off alone to the
Sands of Dee and doesn't want to be interrupted!'

'But what you would call a noise, isn't music, Arthur. Now Hazel, I wish you would just sing one of your little songs and confound him!' Primrose spoke entreatingly.

'I should be more happy to be confoundedin that waythan I can tell,' said the doctor.

'Thank you,' Hazel answered laughing; 'my songs are quite too small to do that for anybody. And besides, as I once heard somebody say,"I was not asked first." '

'Your are asked to be the first,' said Rollo.

'I remember one night at Newport' Dr. Arthur began. Hazel interrupted him.

'You need not remember anything about Newport!'

'Need I not?' said the doctor smiling. 'Agreed!I like this much better. But one night when you were singing to Kitty Fisher, in her room, she had secretly posted an ambush underneath the window. It would be hard to forget those songs, or to cease wishing to hear them again.'

'Kitty Fisher!'

'You will certainly do for Prim what you would do for Kitty
Fisher,' remarked Rollo.

'I suspect I did it for myself then,' said Hazel; and "for herself' was the way she liked best to sing. But if he wished it So without more ado the song came. Not one of her gay little carols this time, but a wild Border lament; inimitably sweet, tender, and true. As effortless in the giving, as forgetful of auditors, as if she had been a veritable bird among the branches; for Wych Hazel always lost herself in her music.

Then more was called for, with a general soft shout. And then, by and by, as Wych Hazel sang, a soft rich accompaniment began to chime in with her notes. Those two had never sung together before; doubtless that was forgotten by neither; and it is not too much to say that the one voice came caressingly attending upon the other; playing around her notes with delicious skill, accompanying, supporting, contrasting, with a harmony as gracious as it was wilful; till at the close of a somewhat longer piece than usual there was a universal burst of applause. Small audiences are not generally wrought up to such a pitch; and when they had done they all sat and laughed at each other.

'Ah!' said Dr. Arthur, 'I asked for a noise, and after all had to make it myself!'

They had got intoxicated with melody. They went on singing, of course. Various and diverse things, but for the most part of the deeper and thoughtful styles of music; sometimes together, sometimes alone. At last Gyda asked for a hymn. Rollo looked at Wych Hazel. The two spots of colour which had been burning in her cheeks, changed suddenly to a grave flush.

'That is for you,' she said softly.

He waited a moment, and then sang,

"Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott"

To hear Rollo sing a hymn, or any other song, was to have the meaning given with not less but more than speaking expression, and Wych Hazel's winter studies had enabled her to follow the words. The listeners were all very still, and no applause followed. But when the last line was ended, Rollo rose and announced that it was time to go. And soon as he and Arthur had left the cottage, Hazel sprang up.

'Mrs. Boërresen, which window best commands the Hollow?'

'You can't see into the Hollow from any of 'em, my lady.'

'Where then?'

'You know there's a bend in the Hollow, Hazel,' Prim remarked.
'We cannot see into it from anywhere here.'

Wych Hazel stood looking down into the burnt out fire, her hands knotted tight together. If she were but alone!Could she in any possible way elude her companions and not be found out? especially the first. Certainly she was a wayward creature, they might think. Five minutes ago listening to that hymn with the most quiet, subdued child's face; and now fairly sparkling with energy and purpose. How could she manage? Prim was putting on her bonnet and shawl.

'It is not very cold,' she remarked. 'I am going as far as the top of the road.'

Hazel glanced at the gray chair,no, she could not disturb that. She begged a shawl of Gyda, and was off, out of the door without more ado. But not to find Primrose. It rather suited the young lady's mood to be by herself; and so, noiselessly, Hazel flitted along through the starlight, without however being able to reach a point which looked straight down into the Hollow beyond the bend. The uneven ground, the unknown distances, baffled her. Standing still, she heard nothing. The starry sky overhead was not more calmly quiet than this portion of the darksome earth appeared to be. A little frosty, the air did not stir enough to rustle the leaves on the trees. Crickets and some other fall insects had it all their own way. Wych Hazel went over to the ground on the other side of the road and tried that. Frosty, and still, and starlight, it was on the other side of the road; in the bright gloom even her point of view did not seem to be changed. Her next move was back to the cottage. There she stood still upon the steps.

Presently the door opened behind her. 'My little lady' said Gyda.

'I am here, all safe.'

'Won't you come in?'

'But I cannot hear anything!' said Hazel. 'I might go a little bit down the road'

'No,' said Gyda. 'He wouldn't have you, nor forgive me if I let you. There'll be no great trouble, my lady; my lad's men will all do what he bids them; and if there's trouble, he'll get it over.'

'Do you think so?'She drew a long breath, stepping down off the stone again and listening. The old woman's hand came softly to hers to draw her in, for the watch had already lasted long; but just then a faint reddish light arose in the dark above the Hollow.

'What's that?'

'It's fire, my lady.'

'There!' Hazel exclaimed. 'O don't stay hereyou will get cold; but just leave me.'

Gyda would not leave her however, nor lose sight of her. Their words drew Prim to the door, who had earlier returned to the cottage. They all stood looking. There was a glow of light certainly; it brightened and spread for a while; yet it was rather like the glare from a good-sized bonfire than the token of any more serious conflagration. Nevertheless they watched it, the younger women painfully; until they saw that the light was stationary, did not increase, then certainly was less, then evidently fading. 'It's all getting over,' said Gyda; 'and it's not great thing at all. Come you in before the master gets back. It's your wisest.'

'I never was famed for being wise,' said Hazel, her spirits taking a little spring as the fire went down. But she turned and went in, and stood before the peaceful fire on the hearth, looking into its red depths. Primrose sat down, but with a different face, sober and meditative in another way. Gyda went out to her kitchen. Perhaps Hazel was tired of standing, for she presently knelt down on the hearth stone, holding out her fingers to the blaze, covered with the red light from head to foot. She looked rather pale, through it all.

'Prim,' she said suddenly, 'did you ever stay all night up here?'

'No. Never.'

'Then of course you do not know where we are to make believe sleep.'

'I suppose it will be in that room where our things were laid. Mrs. Boërresen will tell us. Hazel, will you mind, if I say something I want to say?'

'I cannot tell whether I shall mind or not.'

'Shall I say it?'

'Yes, if you want to,' said Hazel, devoting herself to the tongs and the fallen brands.

'It is only just this.What are you going to do about dress?'

If ever anybody was astonished, it was perhaps Miss Kennedy just then.

'Dress!' she echoed, looking at Primrose and then down at the trim, invisible brown riding-habit, which, looped up and fastened out of the way had been perforce retained through the evening. Very stylish, no doubt, as all her dresses were; though in this case the best style happening to be simplicity, the brown habit with its deep white linen frills was almost severely plain. 'Prim,I have not the faintest idea what you mean!'

'I don't mean now, to-night, of course.'

'Any time. What do you mean by "do"?'

'Manage' said Prim. She looked as if she were searching into the subject, with a doubtful mood upon her. She went on. 'Do you suppose Dane would like you to dress as you have been accustomed to do?'

Wych Hazel rose to her feet. Whatever Mr. Rollo's own right to comment upon her or her dress might be, she was not in the least disposed to take the comments at second hand.

'I should think your recollection might tell you,' she said, 'that Mr. Rollo feels quite free to find fault with me whenever he sees occasion.'

'But Hazel,' said Prim meekly,'don't be angry,Do you want to wait for that?'

Hazel gave a half laugh. 'People always think I am angry,' she said.'I wonder if I am such a tempest?'

'You are not a tempest at all,' said Prim still meekly; 'not now, certainly; but I know you can feel things, and I don't want you to feel anything I say, except pleasantly. Indeed I don't, Hazel.'

'I'm glad you think I can feel things, but I suppose my comprehension is less lively. I do not even know what "managing" about my dress would be. I never "manage"!' said Hazel, with a fierce onset upon the brands.

'I know you haven't. But don't you thinkperhapsyou will have to? Don't you think it will be best?'

'I don't know how, and I never do it, and I do not know what you mean,' Miss Wych answered, sending a column of sparks up the chimney and shewing a few in her own eyes. Which however she did not turn upon Primrose. Primrose eyed the sparks which flew up chimney, with an unrecognizing face.

'You know, Hazel,' she began again, 'your dress is always so beautiful.'

'Well? If my guardians ever find it out, they never object.'

'But you know, Hazel! you know!' exclaimed Primrose in some distress. 'How shall I speak to you? Your guardians would not meddle, I suppose, either of them; but don't you think, now, that Dane will want you to do a little as he does? Do you think he will like you to dress so expensively? and you know you do, Hazel. And he gave up his cigars long ago.'

If Prim could have known all the minute thorns she was sticking into her friend! Hazel was vexed enough to laugh, or to cry, or to do anything, almost.

'I am glad he has,'she said, 'but really I have nothing answering to cigars in all my list of expenses.'

'O Hazel! don't you think so?'

'No. I suppose you like them better than I do.'

'What, cigars?'

'Yes. I should think any man would be thankful to get rid of them.
Mr. Falkirk never smokes.'

'I don't like them. But men do. And Dane always smoked such delicious cigarsI used to catch the sweet scent of them often in summer time, when windows were open, and then I knew he was lingering about somewhere near; in the garden or the meadow.' Prim gave the least little unconscious sigh as she spoke. Hazel glanced at her, and her own face grew very thoughtful. The subject of dress was left quite in the distance.

'And he has given all that up,' Prim went on; 'and I thought, perhaps, you had not thought about it. All this about dress, I mean.'

'No, I have not,' said Hazel. 'Especially as I do not know what "all this" is. What to do with cigars seems clear; but my dresses hang in the dark. Never mind,a girl with two guardians is not likely to go very far in any direction.' And Hazel carefully set the tongs in place, and swept up the hearth; and then suddenly caught up her shawl again and wrapped it round her.

'What can have become of that fire?' she said. 'It is an age since we came in. Let's go and see.'

But opening the door revealed only the quiet, clear, starry sky and the still air. No glare of fire; no sound of voices; the crickets seemed to be going on comfortably and much as usual. The air was a trifle more chill, too; and after a few minutes of fruitless watching the two girls came indoors again; but they would not accept Gyda's proposition and go to bed. It was not very late, they said; and once more the three women sat down round the fire to wait. After a time however, Primrose gave it up and went off. Hazel sat still, pondering. Not in her great chair now, but down at the corner of the hearth; with a disturbed mind going over Prim's enigmas. Something about her was sure to displease,that seemed to be as near as she could come to it; and a restless, uneasy sort of pain crept into her heart and over her face. But the minute returning steps were heard outside the door, Hazel darted away to where Prim was already asleep.

Could Prim have been set to talk to her? she thought as she looked. But it was no use to raise that question to-night. Nevertheless the question lifted its own head now and then,that, and one other sorrowful thought which the evening had left: she was ready to join him in singing anythingexcept just what he loved best! And Hazel went to sleep with a sigh upon her lips.