The Gold of Chickaree

by Susan Warner; Anna Bartlett Warner

CHAPTER XXXII.

SUPPER.

It was not exactly a cheery evening in Hazel's deserted rooms. Rollo had the entertainment of Prim and Mrs. Coles upon his hands, and was besides all the time busied in baffling her efforts to find out whether he was anxious, whether he knew where Wych Hazel had gone, whether he was aware of what kept her, and whether he did not think something ought to be done. This sort of exercise grows wearisome in time; and Rollo finally gave it up and fled. He put on coat and hat and repaired to the great entrance of the hotel, which seemed to him just then if not a point of rest, yet to be nearest to that point. Here he had a view of the storm, which he studied at leisure in the intervals of watching everything on wheels that went by. He knew who it was, when Hazel's carriage drew up at last, and was by the side if it before it had fairly stopped.

He opened the door and took Hazel out, and led her into the house, without paying attention to anything but her. He took her up stairs to her own room, which he reached without going through the parlour where Mrs. Coles and Prim were. There he threw off his own snow-covered wrappings and then hers, that he might wrap her in his arms. He did not say what he had been feeling, but his manner of great gladness left Hazel to infer several things. And for a minute or two she was passive, shewing a pale, tired face. But then there swept over her such a sense of what she had, and of what she had escaped, that she could only lay her head down on his shoulder and be still; a shiver running over her as she remembered other souls adrift.

'Have you dined, in the snow, anywhere?' were Rollo's first coherent words. He was not given to talking sentiment. At the same time he was gathering Hazel's cold hands into his.

'I could not help it, Olaf!' Hazel broke out. 'I have been whirled about like a brown snow-flake.'

'And come home frozen.' He rang the bell for Phoebe, admonished her to be quick, and went back to the drawing room. When Hazel a few minutes later followed him, she found a servant bringing in supper. Primrose gave her a welcome kiss, but the other lady exclaimed,eyes and senses on the alert,

'Well, my dear! we have been uneasy about you.'

'Nobody ever needabout me,' said Wych Hazel. 'Unless there is something afoot more serious than a snow-storm.'

'It's a wild storm, isn't it?'

'Rather wild. You know, wild things are in my line, Mrs. Coles.'

'Not now, my dear, I hope. You have not come far in the snow, surely?'

'A little way seems far in such a drive, don't you know it, Prudentia?' remarked Rollo. And he took Wych Hazel out of the chair where she had placed herself and transferred her to a softer one.

'But Dane,' Mrs. Coles continued, with her own very peculiar mixture of raillery and insinuation,'aren't you curious? or do you know all already?'

'I know all I want to know at present, thank you.'

'Does he always let you do just what you like, Hazel?'

'What I like?' Hazel repeated dreamily, lifting her eyes to the person in question: a swift, secret glance of allegiance which to- night came to him very often. Then she laughed and coloured a little. 'I hardly know,' she said. 'My "like" and his "let" are mixed up in inextricable confusion.'

'My dear!' said Mrs. Coles in mock reprehension, but smiling.
'What an admission!'

And I think an inner voice of wisdom admonished her to let the matter rest and say no more; but Mrs. Coles was in a sort of malign fascination at the picture before her. Hazel was in her easy chair; Dane had brought up a little low stand before her, and sitting between her and the supper table he was taking care of both; but the care bestowed at his left hand was something the like of which was strange to see. The late Mr. Coles had never introduced his wife to anything of the kind; indeed he had been one of the men who rather expect that their wives shall wait upon them. It was not Dane was neglecting other people, or that he was making any parade whatever; on the contrary, he was fully attentive to every want of everybody, and of Hazel he was only taking care; yet it was a sort of care and given in a manner that put miles and miles between her and all other women. I suppose Mrs. Coles felt herself somehow out in the cold, for it was certainly with a little spice of irritation that she opened her lips the next time she spoke.

'But Dane,' with an uneasy little laugh, 'I really think you are to blame, to allow this little ladyso very young a lady as she isto run about alone at night in this way. I have really been anxious. I thought you would be a better guardian, when you had the keys once safe.'

'Will you have some salad, Prudentia?'

'Salad?O no, my dear! I think it is very unwholesome.'

'Take some ice.'

A turn, or at least a check, was given to the conversation. Mrs. Coles could not refuse the ice. Primrose would eat no supper, and was evidently longing to get her sister away. Rollo cut for Hazel a slice of game.

'But Dane,' said Mrs. Coles presently, 'don't you think it is very imprudent to eat such heavy things late at night? Coffee and salad, and game? This ice is delicious.'

'So is the salad,' said Dane. 'Will you have a bit of the pheasant,
Prudentia?'

'My dear! no. I don't see how you reconcile it with your new principles, either, to have such suppers.'

Rollo's eye had a flash of laughter in it as it went to Wych Hazel.
He asked gravely, 'Why not?'

'Mr. Rollo and I have agreed about partridges,'said Hazel, in whom also fun was beginning to stir, though her eyes kept a far-off look now and then.

'Agreed about partridges!' repeated Mrs. Coles.

'Yes,' said Dane. 'You had better take some, Prudentia. Rosy,a little bit with some bread would not hurt you.'

'But the expense, Dane!'

'Yes. What about it?'

'The expense must be fearful of such a supperin such a house as this.'

'A man who wants his horse to do him good service never asks about the price of oats.'

'Dane!' said Mrs. Coles laughing and bridling, 'do you mean to compare your wife to your horse?'

Rollo was quite silent, long enough to have the silence marked. And when he spoke, it was not to Mrs. Coles, neither did he honour her by so much as a look, during the rest of her stay in the room. Primrose made the stay as short as she could, and Mrs. Coles who felt that she had lost her footing and did not know how to regain it, suffered herself to be carried away. But while Primrose got a kiss, she was dismissed by her host with a very ceremonious reverence. He had opened the door for the two and closed it behind them. Coming back he bent down to touch his lips to Wych Hazel's cheek.

'If you have any remarks to make, make them!' he said. 'I am defenceless, and at your mercy.'

But for once Wych Hazel was in a region of air quite beyond Mrs.
Coles. She looked up at him wistfully.

'I do not understand,' she said, 'how you ever came to care about me! It always was a puzzle,and never so much as to-night.' The brown eyes were strangely soft and luminous and humble.

'How is that?' said he quietly, taking his former place beside her and making suggestions of addition to her supper. But Hazel laid down her fork, giving her plate a little push, in the fashion of old times.

'I have been looking into depths,' she said,'abysses. I think I was never really near them, but I might have seemed so.'

'What sort of abysses? And in the mean time, take some iceMrs.
Coles was correct in one thing she said.'

'Dane,' Hazel said abstractedly, 'do you think you could be a success where I have proved a failure?'

'Where have you proved a failure?'

Hazel neglected her ice and leaned back in her chair.

'I used to think I could do things,' she said. 'And I have spent this whole afternoon and evening to no sort of purpose.'

'It is instructive, to learn sometimes that one cannot do things' said Dane. I suppose he had a little curiosity, but not much, for he knew he should hear what there was to hear; and he was thinking much more of Hazel than of what she had or had not failed to do. So he spoke in a rather careless amused tone.

'Very!' Hazel answered.'Dane, in buying up a man, is it more skilful to set a priceor to let him name it himself?'

'If you want to buy me,I should say, let me set my own price.'

'Thank you. Even my extravagance does not desire such waste. But I want to buy off that nephew of Mme. Lasalle's. Andbeing worth nothinghow much is he worth? I believe I ought to have offered a definite sum,' she went on, half to herself.

Dane roused up fully now, and demanded to know what she was talking about?

'He is going to Lisbon,' said Hazel, too engrossed to be very methodical in her details. 'And Josephine Charteris means to go with him. I can do nothing at all with _her_and I must do something with him.'

'Not with Stuart Nightingaleif that is what you mean.'

'I must.'

'I can find a substitute for that "must." What do you want to do,
Wych?'

'Put them both under bonds. But I have tried, and failed.'

'You have tried Josephine? Do you say that she wants to go with him?'

'Says she will go. Will not even take diamonds insteadand they were her price,' said Wych Hazel with sorrowful disgust. 'So then I tried him.'

'Tried him! Have you seen Nightingale?'

'O yes. Annabella let him get her carriage and drive home with us. I would not,' said Wych Hazel with energy. 'Not if I had waited there all night.'

'Was he in the carriage with you?'

'Coming home,yes. And after Annabella was set down, I tried him with everything I could think of,or everything he could, rather.'

'I am very curious to hear what arguments you made use of.' Dane bent a little to look at the speaker, with a face half amused and wholly intent. Wych Hazel laughed softly.

'I am not a very round-about person,' she said. 'And if he had had either honour or conscience or feeling, there would have been no need for my speaking at all. And Josephine had just assured me that last year he wanted my fortuneso I asked him how much he would like to have now. In effect.'

'With the understanding that he might have what he spoke for?'

'O yes. Of course,' she added with a flush and a glance, 'he knew that I could only mean within certain limits. I did not tell him what they were.'

Rollo looked at her for a moment almost sternly; but then he broke into a laugh. 'It is like Wych Hazel!' he said.

'Was it absurd?' said the girl, the crimson starting again. 'But I do not see why. I suppose that is like me too,' she added with a half laugh.

'I do not think you absurd,' said Rollo, laughing still. 'Perhaps just a trifleunbusinesslike.'

'But I thought it was good business to say exactly what you mean?'

'If you were practised in rifle shooting, I should tell you that you forgot to allow for the wind.'

'Well, as I am not?'said Wych Hazel looking up at him.

'For instance. You are practising at a mark, perhaps eight hundred yards off; the first time you aim for the bull's eye, and hit it. Between the first shot and the second however, a breeze has sprung up. That alters the case. The second time you will not aim at the bull's eye, but perhapsaccording to the force of the wind a dozen feet to one side of it.'

'Did that ever happen in your shooting?'

'Such a thing has happened in my shooting.'

'And you hit it, that second time?'

'I hit ityes.'

Wych hazel looked soberly into the fire. 'You will never make a sharp-shooter of me, Olaf,' she said. 'I think nothing will ever make me learn calculation.'

'What did Nightingale answer you?'

'He saidor intimatedthat I thought I had my old power still,' said Hazel slowly.

'He is one of the men that have their price. But you forgot that his pride must have its price too.'

'Pride? Can he have any pride left? It was just becausebecause he used to like to do what I said, that he would not now.'

'I do not understand yet how he came to be driving with you.'

'Didn't I say that? Why,' said Wych Hazel running rapidly over details, 'Annabella did not have their own carriage, but a hack and a tipsy driver,for Josephine's sake, you know. And when we left Josephine he set off up north to see where the snow came from. And we made him turn round, and then jumped out when we got back to Fort Washington. And there we ran against that man again.'

'How came you in Fort Washington?' Rollo asked, his eyes snapping in the midst of the very grave intentness with which he was listening.

'That is where Josephine has hid away.'

'Nightingale drove in from Fort Washington with you?'

'Yes.'

'Does anybody know about this business?' Rollo asked after a slight pause. 'Not Josephine's mother?'

'Nobody. Annabella thought I might have some influencebut if I could not keep her from marrying Charteris in the first place What can be done?'

'I will try. But Wych, I am going to make one regulation.'

'Yes. Well?' said Wych Hazel, with a certain sheer at the name of "regulations."

'Whenever you go out in a carriage, here or in the country, I wish you always to be attended by a trustworthy servanteither Lewis, or Byrom, or Reo.'

'But my dear friend, in this case I could not have taken either.
Don't you see?'

'I do not see anything,' said Rollo lazily. 'Not even that I am your dear friend.'

'I have known you fail on that point before,' said Wych Hazel demurely. 'But the thing to see is that Mr. Rollo's regulations cannot always be carried out.'

'I cannot think of a case where I should allow the exception.'

'I'll tell you as they come. Then will you try what you can do with that wretch?' she went on eagerly.

'I think we can manage him. But I shall not see him myself, Wych; that would be to start his pride again; and of all human passions pride is the strongest that I knowunless possibly jealousy. I must have a medium, and I think I know the right one. I propose to offer him, not carte blanche, but, say, five thousand a year for five years; on condition that during that time he neither joins nor is joined by Josephine, wherever he may be. He wants money badly, as you say. I think he will accept my offer.'

'You had better say for life,' said Wych Hazel quickly.

'No,' said Rollo smiling; 'that would be bad economy. Some day you will know what economy is; in the mean while, believe me. He is not worth more than twenty-five thousand dollars; and she is not. And if she is obliged to wait five years, she will never go to him after that. As to the rest,'and Rollo bent his head caressingly by the side of Wych Hazel's'where my regulations cannot be carried out, Hazel,do not go.'

'But Olaf'

'Well, Wych?' he said, looking at her with the grey eyes full of love, and full of delight in her, and full of admiration of her; not the less, soft as they were, full also of that expression which is called masterful when people do not like it. Wych Hazel looked up and then down, silently knotting her fingers in and out. Rollo put his lips down to hers, but waited for what she had to say. It did not come at once.

'I am trying to push myself out of sight,' she said frankly with one of her sweet laughs. 'And I am a hard one to push, sometimes. But for my worksuppose I have something to do which cannot be done so?'

'Don't do it.'

'Really? Suppose it ought to be done?'

'It is quite plain that in such a case, it ought not to be done by you.'

'You leave me no more room for discretion, than Mr. Rollo did in the old time,' said Wych Hazel soberly. 'WellI hope you will succeed with that man,' she went on in her former tone; 'but he was not in a pretty mood to-day.'

'We shall succeed with him. And when you get into any perplexity, what hinders Mrs. Rollo from applying to her husband? Or in a case of need, employing him?'

'I always did like to work out my own perplexities.'

Rollo laughed at her a little, and let the subject drop.

But the business of Nightingale he took up in earnest the next day. Stuart shewed some fencing, which however was widely distant from fight; and in the end gave in to Rollo's proposal, with the exception that he contrived to bargain for five thousand down in addition. Rollo and Hazel were well content. Stuart received the guaranty of thirty thousand dollars, and Josephine Charteris was saved to her family and to society. And nobody knew anything about it.