The Gold of Chickaree

by Susan Warner; Anna Bartlett Warner

CHAPTER XIII.

UNDER THE CHESTNUT TREES.

Mr. Falkirk did not go out to breakfast that Sunday morning; and no one at Chickaree but the two old retainers knew how Miss Wych had tired herself, nor where she had rested overnight. Monday came and went in uneventful rain, and Tuesday was the day of the party in the woods.

A simple enough affair,just chestnuts and lunch; but rarely had the young lady of the domain been so hard to please in the matter of her dress. For words do leave their footsteps, drive them out as we will; and this Prim's words had done. Not quite according to Prim's intent, however; for the one clear idea in Wych Hazel's mind, was that Mr. Rollo was (or would be when he noticed it at all) dissatisfied with her dress. And that was precisely the line in which she had never before met criticism. Hazel took off one colour after another, until Phoebe was in despair and Mrs. Bywank turned away and smiled out of the window.

'And dear me, ma'am,' cried Phoebe at last, 'there comes a carriage!'

Hazel looked towards the window, caught the old housekeeper's eye, and suddenly embellishing her proceedings with a pair of scarlet cheeks, she opened another press, seized the first white dress that came to hand, and put it on without more ado. A dainty white piqué, all on the wing with delicate embroideries and lace, and broad sash ends of the colour of red gold.

'But Miss Wych!' Mrs. Bywank remonstrated. 'The wind is very fresh.'

Wych Hazel made another plunge after sealskin jacket and cap; turned over a box of gloves till she matched her ribbands; gave Mrs. Bywank a laugh and a flash from her eyes, and was off. But that carriage it seemed had rolled by, and there was no one at the meeting place in the woods when the girl seated herself there to await her guests.

' "Do you think Dane will like to have you dress as you do?" 'so ran her thoughts. 'Well,how do I dress?'

She sat looking into the soft silence of the October air, feeling that for her life was changing fast. The old bounds to her action had somehow now stretched out to take in her will; her own pleasure now often in the mood to wait, uncertain of its choice, till she knew the pleasure of somebody else. There was the least bit of rebellion at this here and there; and yet on the whole Wych Hazel by no means wished herself back in the old times when nobody cared. Ah how lonely she had been!and how full the world seemed now, with that secret sense of happiness pervading all things! Meanwhile, as Prim had said, what was she going to do about dress?

It happened that the first interruption to her meditations came from a visiter who did not intend to be a guest. No less than Gov. Powder; a portly, gentlemanly, somewhat imposing personage, who was less known to society than were his wife and daughters. However, without wife and daughters, here he was.

'Good morning, my dear, good morning!' he began blandly, shaking Wych Hazel's hand with a sort of paternal-official benignity. 'Your guardian has not come upon the scene yet? I thought I should find him here. Why how cool you look, for October!'

'Yes, sirI like to look cool,' said Hazel, conscious that she could not always accomplish the feat. 'Especially when I have the world on my hands. Just now I am undefended., Gov. Powder; but I suppose both my guardians will be here by and by.'

'What do you do with two guardians, eh? Keep 'em both in good humour?'

'One at a time is as much as I often try for,' said Hazel. 'But Gov. Powder, I wish you would let me have a little fun right over the heads of them both.'

'I?' said the ex-governor, somewhat surprised. 'Eh? It does not often happen to me now-a-days to have the honour of such an appealunless from my own mad daughters. In what direction do you want me to come over your guardians, Miss Kennedy? and which of them?'

'O it is nothing mad at all, in my case,' said Hazel. 'And neither of them must know. But will you walk a little way down the wood with me, sir? I do not want them even to see a consultation.'

A man must be much set in his own purposes who would not go more than 'a little way' after such a voice; and Gov. Powder was but an ordinary man. So, finding the white ruffles a very pretty sort of a convoy, the ex-governor strolled down among the golden hickories and ruddy oaks, and never once guessed that he had a siren at his elbow.

'Last winter,' Hazel began, speaking fast now, to keep pace with the minutes, 'I had quite a large legacy left to me.'

'Somebody who wanted to protect you against misfortune, eh?' said the governor.

'Or who did not believe in guardians, sir; for mine were to have no control over it whatever.'

'I see!' said the governor. 'Pocket money to purchase sugar-plums.'

'But perhaps you know, sir, that we girls like sugar-plums of many sorts.'

'Miss Kennedy, do you know my daughters?'

'Well sir,' said Hazel weighing her words, wondering to herself whether diplomats get along without telling fibs; and if they do, how they do,'it would be quite a novelty of a bonbon to invest this money in some splendid way, all by myself. Not the whole of it, you know, sir,only a few thousands.' She was so eager! and so terribly afraid of shewing her eagerness.

'That is a sort of bonbon that is very tempting to old fellows like me; but, pardon me, I should think it was more in Mr. Falkirk's way than in yours?'

'Mr. Falkirk may admire it afterwards, if he chooses, but I want to make the investment. And I learned from somebody,' said Hazel, careful of her words, "that the best thing I could do, was to buy that bit of land of yours, Gov. Powder, lying just at the head of the Hollow. It is not worth more than twenty thousand, is it?' she went on, suggestively. 'And I was told, sir, that you were ready to dispose of it.'

'Somebody spoke too fast,' said the governor, looking unmistakably surprised this time. 'Really, I am in no hurry to dispose of that piece of land. Its value is in its water power. You don't want to build mills, do you?'

'No, sir,the whole of my legacy would not cover that. And I would rather not invest more than twenty thousand at first.'

'Twenty thousand' has a pleasant sound to a man with 'mad' daughters, and other expenses! Nevertheless the governor looked steadily into the face of facts.

'My dear Miss Kennedy, I must remark to you, that if you do not want to put mills on that ground, it would be a very poor investment for your twenty thousand. The water power is all the value there. And Paul Charteris has been trying to get it of me for his own purposes. Now I know what he wants; but I do not see what you want with land in Mill Hollow.'

'Why Governor Powder,' said Hazel, 'Mr. Falkirk would go to sleep in luxury, if he could only see why I want things! One might as well be a manor Mr. Paul Charterisat once!'

'Isn't Paul Charteris a man?' inquired Gov. Powder laughing. Hazel laughed too, but returned to the charge.

'I shall not invest in him,' she said, 'even so much as an opinion.
What I want is the land, and the water power, and the fun.'

Gov. Powder stepped back and took a survey of the little lady.

'You mustn't break your teeth with a bonbon,' said he. 'Suppose you let me speak to my friend Mr. Falkirk about it?'

'No indeed, sir! Mr. Falkirk never approves of anything he does not suggest himself. All great men have their weak points, Gov. Powder,' said Wych Hazel.

'Well, let us say Rollo then. I think he is a wild man with his own fortune; but I reckon he would look out for yours. By the way! he may want the land for himself? eh?'

'Of course he may,' said Wych Hazel, 'but not half so much as I do. To consult him, would be saying no to me, Gov. Powder. And you know you are going to say yes.'

'I don't understand doing business with ladies!' said the poor governor, shaking his head. 'I can get along with my own sort. Miss Kennedy, there are certain complications, which I cannot explain to you. Paul Charteris has been at me to get those very acres that you want. What would he say, if I threw him over and sold them to you? I guess you must let me settle with him first.'

'Tell him you sold the land to somebody who offered more,' said
Hazel. 'That is easy enough. How much would he give, sir?'

'Ah but, the thing is, there are complications,there are complications,' repeated the governor. 'Give? He don't want to give above the half of your twenty thousand; and I couldn't in conscience take the whole. The land is not worth so much as that, Miss Kennedy. But young ladies don't understand complications,' he added with a smile. 'I can't just throw Paul over, without a word.'

'Push him off,' said Hazel. 'Nobody can teach me anything about complications!Push him off, sir. Just give him a negative and do not say why.'

'What do you want it for?'

'Just now,' said Hazel, 'I want to get ahead of Mr. Charteris.'

'I may tell him I have an offer of twelve thousand?' said the governor, who was badly in want of money.

'Certainly, sir. If you will first say three words to make sure Mr.
Charteris shall not get ahead of me.'

'Well, well!' said the governor'here come people, Miss Kennedy,he shall not get ahead of you. At any rate, I'll settle nothing with him without letting you know. He can't outbid you you're pretty safe. Do I understand that you want this affair kept private, between you and me?'

'O yes, sir!' cried Hazel softly,'it is to be terribly private. And if you will only let women vote, Gov. Powder, I will certainly vote for you.Mr. Falkirk, if you knew how long Gov. Powder has been impatient for you, you would be grieved to have left him so long with me!'And Miss Kennedy flitted off, with eyes in a sparkle that was dangerous to come near. I think Gov. Powder's eyes sparkled a little too, poor man; they had grown a little dull with looking so long into ways and means.

And after this little bit of business, the pleasure of the day set in with a flood tide. You have all seen such days. Nature had laid out a wonderful entertainment, to begin with; and put no hindrances in the way; and it appeared that every creature came with spirits and hopes on tiptoe. Dresses were something captivating, so much attention and invention had been exercised upon them. And the facilities for flirtations which the scene and the sport afforded, were most picturesque. The parties in the trees could display their agility; the parties on the ground could show their costumes in charming attitudes. For a time the care of the hostess was needed in assigning the people to their proper posts of usefulness or pleasure; but when all were come and all was in train, the thing would run itself, and Wych Hazel became as free as anybody else.

'Look here,' cried Josephine Powder, 'I've been waiting all day to speak to you. Nobody wants you now, Hazel; come here and sit down. I'm in awful trouble.'

Wych Hazel sat down and pulled off her gloves, and then the glittering fingers went diving into her pocket after chestnuts.

'Well?' she said,'what now? There is a big onetry that.'

'I used to like chestnuts once,' said Josephine looking at it. 'I wonder if there'll be fun in anything ever any more for me?'

'Depends a good deal upon where you look for it,' said Miss Kennedy, biting her nut. 'Are you playing pendulum still, for pity's sake?'

'Pendulum? No. I'm fixed. I've accepted John Charteris.'

'Have you!' said Hazel, thinking that her business interview had been just in time. 'How much down, Josephine? and how much on bond and mortgage?'

'What do you mean?'

'The trouble is, you can never foreclose,' said Hazel. 'Are the diamonds satisfactory?'

'You are not,' said Josephine energetically. 'Now be good, Hazel! I came to you, because I thought you were the only creature that would have a little feeling for me. Everybody else says it's such a grand thing.'

'Well, I have some feeling for you, and so I don't say it. Much more feeling than patience. Why do you sell yourself, if you do not like the price, Josephine Powder?'

'What can one do?' said the girl disconsolately.

'Let me see the first instalment,' said Hazel. 'Is it paid in?'

'I don't know what you mean,' said Josephine. 'I tell you, they were all at me, and said I should be such a fool if I let it slip; and that I should be very happy;but I don't feel so.'

'Not when everybody says you are?' Hazel enquired with slight scorn.

'Of course one likes to have other people think one is happy,' said
Josephine; 'you don't want to have them pitying you. I thought I
should feel better when I was engaged and the whole thing settled.
I wish people could live without getting married!'

'Well,' said Wych Hazel, 'there is one thing I could not do without,if I had to marry John Charteris.'

'What is that?'

'A pocket pistol.'

'A pocket pistol, Hazel! He isn't as bad as that. What's the matter with him?'

'Just a trifle. You do not love him.'

'They said that would come,' said Josephine dolefully.

'By express, from the land of nowhere,' said Miss Wych nibbling her nuts. 'Marked "Very perishable!!!" '

'But I don't find that it comes.'

'No,' said Hazel coolly, 'that land is a good way off. Isn't it cold work waiting all alone with the diamonds?'

Josephine displayed a magnificent finger. But she looked at it with no reflection of its light in her eyes. 'You speak very coolly,' she said, then letting her hand drop. 'I thought you would feel for me somehow.'

'I tell you I do, or I should not take the trouble of pinching you to see if you have any feeling left for yourself. Does not that ring make you shiver?'

'Sometimes. But what can I do, Hazel? It may as well be John Charteris as anybody else, as long as one can't please oneself. One must marry somebody. You know one must!'

'Look at them,' said Hazel. 'As cold and hard as he is. Flashing up nothing deeper than the pocket they came from.'

'There is no fault in the diamonds,' said Josephine sulkily. 'They ought to be hard. And these are beauties. And Charteris isn't harder than other people, that I know of. It is only thatI don't want to marry him. And he is in an awful hurry. If it was a long way off, I wouldn't mind so much.'

Wych Hazel dropped the chestnuts.

'Josephine,' she said gravely, 'do you see these rings on my hands?'

'Yes. I have seen them and admired them often enough. There's a splendid emerald though. I never saw that before. O Hazel!' the girl cried suddenly. 'It's on that finger!'

The hands were something to look at, in their glitter or strange old- fashioned rings, with many-coloured stones and various settings. Only a close observer would have noticed that the emerald alone was a fit.

'Every one of all the eight is a betrothal ring,' Hazel went on, not heeding; 'every one has been a token between people who chose each other from all the world. They were not all rich, you see, here is a poor little silver hoop among the diamonds. And they were not all happy; for this ruby has seen a death-parting, and the pearls are not whiter than the face that had waited for twenty years. But not one ring has the stain of a broken troth, nor the soil of a purchase. The people suffered, they waited, they died,but they never so much as thought of any one but each other, in all the world!' Wych Hazel folded her hands in her lap again, looking at Josephine with eyes that were all alight.

'But that's yours,' Josephine went in impatiently. 'Who put it on?'
The girl's accent was of more than curiosity.

'There are several of them you have never seen before,' said Hazel. 'Josephine, do you understand what I say to you? People starve to death upon diamonds.'

'Ah well, but do tell me!' said the girl, with a curious mixture of coaxing and distressful in her tone. 'Do tell me who it was, Hazel. I just want to know.'

'You just want shaking, I think,' said Wych Hazel. 'I did not say anybody put it there. And I thought you wanted to talk of your own affairs? If not, I will go and attend to my guests."

'You are very cruel,' said Josephine, quite subdued. 'Just tell me if it wasStuart Nightingale?'

'No I shall not. You have nothing to do with Mr. Nightingale. You belong to Mr. Charteris.'

'You put me off!' cried Josephine, laying her face in her hands for a moment. 'It don't matter. I can find out some other way; there are ways enough.'

She looked towards the opening where gleams of colour could now and then be seen flitting among the trees. Wych Hazel laid one little hand on her shoulder.

'Josephine,' she said, 'I wish you would break this off!'

'What?'

'Any sort of engagement with John Charteris.'

'I can't,' said the girl drearily. 'They all want me to marry him. There's be an awful row if I broke it off now. And what difference does it make? If you can't have what you would like, all the rest is pretty much one thing. It's a bore; but one may as well get all out of it one can.'

'See!' said Hazel in her sweet persuasive tones,'you never know what you can have. And you can always have yourself. I would break itfeeling as you doif I were half way through the last yes.'

'Yes, it will do for you to talk,' said Josephine; 'but everybody is not rich like you. And even you, I suppose, don't choose to live as you are for ever. You'll marry too; your finger says so. And I must, I suppose. But I can't tell you how horrid it is. I tell you what, Hazel; one must like a man very much to be willing to give up one's liberty!'

Hazel was not fond of that way of stating the case, even yet. She wet back to the former words.

'Horrid?' she said,'there is no English strong enough. And "must" is absurd, so long as your liberty is in your own power. If ever I "don't choose," as you say, it will be because I don't choose.'

Poor Josephine rose up, straightened herself, with a bearing half proud half defiant, and looked away. Then in another minute, seeing her chance, she darted or glided from her covert, and before Hazel's indignant and pitying gaze, plunged into a gay bit of badinage with her lover who was passing near. No trace of regret or of unwillingness apparent; Josephine was playing off her usual airs with her usual reckless freedom; she and Charteris were presently out of sight.

'And she presumed to bring him here without my leave, and then came down upon me for pity! Wellthe supply is unlimited,she can have all she wants.'And Hazel looked down at her own ring, which meant so much; thinking of the diamonds which meant so little; and went off among her guests, to keep them in more respectful attitudes than even ever before. For Miss Kennedy was extremely remote this day, placing herself at such a dainty distance as was about equally fascinating and hard to bear. Somehow she evaded all the special little devotions with which she was beset; contriving that they should fall through so naturally, that the poor devotee blamed nothing but his own fingers, and followed the brown eyes about more helplessly than ever. Only one or two lookers-on saw deeper. Mr. Kingsland smiled, pursing his studies.

'This ethereal power which one cannot get hold of,' he remarked to himself, 'becomes truly terrific in such hands. Now there is young Bradford,he picked up out those chestnuts solely and exclusively for the heiress of Chickaree,and in some inexplicable way she has made him hand over to Molly Seaton. Not a cent but what her brothers may give her. And how Tom Porter comes to be walking off with Miss May, nobody will ever know but the sorceress herself. She will none of him,nor of anybody else. Who has won?'

'You are expecting more guests, I see, even at this late hour,' he remarked aloud to Mr. Falkirk.

'Why do you judge so?'

'I notice a certain absence,' said Mr. Kirkland. 'Also a vacant place which no one here is allowed to fill. "Trifles light as air," perhaps,and yet'

'Where is your associate counsel to-day, Mr. Falkirk?' said Kitty Fisher, interposing her pretty figure. 'Do you and he take it "off and on"?'

Now this young lady being Mr. Falkirk's special aversion, he deigned no reply to her impertinence; confronting her instead with an undeclarative face and manner of calm repression.

'What is on the carpet?' said a new comer.

'Now whatever possessed you to come on it?' said Miss Fisher with a pout. 'We were just going to scare up a German!'

'Perhaps I can be of some slight assistance.'

Kitty Fisher clapped him affectionately on the shoulder.

'Thanksmy dear fellow,' she said. 'We all know what your "slight assistance" amounts to in such cases. Too mean of you to come! And Hazel has not had one bit of fun yet this whole day.'

'What have you been doing to her?'

'It's a wicked shame,' Kitty went on. 'And Sir Henry coming and everybody. I was going to take out Mr. Falkirkit's leap year, you know; and he might be short of partners,' said Miss Fisher, prudently dropping her voice at this point.

'What is a shame, if you please?'

'For you to walk in and play marplot.'

'Let me walk you off instead, and be useful. You can explain to me your plans as we go.'

'I can help you to find the brown eyes, poor things!' said Kitty. 'Well, they do lots of mischief when you're not by,that's one comfort.'

Through the bright woodland, from group to group of chestnutters, the gentleman and the young lady went. The scene was pretty and lively, but Wych Hazel was not with any of the groups; having in fact escaped from her admirers into the deeper shadow of trees that did not bear chestnuts. At last Miss Fisher's curiosity waked up. Bidding her companion keep watch where he was, in a shadowy corner of red oaks and purple ashes, she ran off, "to beat the bush," as she said; and hardly were her footsteps out of hearing, before lighter ones came through the wood, and Hazel's white dress gleamed out among the colours. She was walking slowly, quite alone, the brilliant fingers twisted together in some knot of a puzzle; but even as Rollo looked from his corner still other steps were heard, and another lady and another gentleman came on the scene.

'O here she is!' cried Miss Burr. 'Et toute seuleby all that's lucky. Here fair lady, I've brought you an escort. I knew Sir Henry Crofton might come without being invited.' And Miss Burr, conscious that she had done a bright thing, walked off to find an escort for herself. Then ensued a peculiar little scene.

The gentleman advanced eagerly, holding out his hand. And Wych Hazel, taking not the least seeming notice, stopped short in her walk, and leaning back against one of the red oaks began to fit on her gloves with the utmost deliberation.

'Sir Henry Crofton knew,' she remarked, 'that it was the only possible way in which he could come.'

'You have not forgiven me!' said the young man with much mortification.

'No,' said Wych Hazel. 'I think I have not.'

Sir Henry was silent, watching the hands and the sparkling fingers, and the gloves that went on so ruthlessly. Then burst forth with words, low spoken and impetuous, which Rollo did not hear. Hazel interrupted him.

'I said I had not forgiven you,' she said. 'I will forget youif you will give me chance. That may answer as well.'

'Forget!' the young man said bitterly,'I shall never forget you!' but he turned off abruptly and left her; and Hazel came slowly forward, with a troubled face.

'Are you "due" anywhere?' said Rollo, suddenly standing, or walking, at her side.

'_You!_yes, I am due everywhere, at this precise moment.'

'Exceptto me, that means.'

'Your notes are not payable till afternoon. And if I do not go and end the morning comfortably with luncheon, afternoon will never come. See what it is to have a logical head.'

Hazel paused and took her former position against a tree stem, leaning back as if she was tired.

'I should like to leave the whole thing on your hands,' she said, 'and then I could lose myself comfortably in the woods, and when everybody was gone you could come and find me. No, that would not do, either' She roused herself and walked on. 'There is nothing for it to-day but to go straight through. I think people are all bewitched and beside themselves!'

He laughed at her a little, and let her go with a consoling assurance that they "would soon end all that." And as the day was wearing on, and the pleasure of such pleasure-seekers as then filled Wych Hazel's woods was especially variety, they were very ready to quit the chestnuts and saunter up to the house; in hope of the luncheon which there awaited them. Mrs. Bywank knew her business; and the guests knew, not that, but the fact that somebody knew it and that the luncheons at Chickaree were pleasant times and very desirable. So there was soon a universal drawing towards the hill top, from all the forsaken chestnut trees, which were left by no means despoiled of their harvest. They had served their turn; now came the turn of patties and cold meats and jellies and ices and fruits. The gathering was rather large; larger than it had shewn for in the woods. The Chickaree house was full and running over; and chestnutters were found to have fearful appetites; and flirtations took new life and vivacity in the new atmosphere; and the whole of it was, people would not go away. Not only Wych Hazel but both her guardians had sharp work for hour after hour attending to the wants and the pleasure of the guests; who at last, when the day was waning, and not till then, slowly made up their minds to take their departure, and one by one took leave of their hostess with thanks and flatteries expressive of highest gratification and admiring delight. Party after party Dane saw to their carriages and bowed off; the house was emptied at last; Mr. Falkirk had betaken himself to the seclusion of his cottage already some time before; and when the afternoon was really darkening, enough to make the glow of the fires within tell in ruddy cheer upon walls and curtains, Dane left the hall door and the latest departure and went into the house to find Wych Hazel and get his "notes" paid.