Chapter 36
"And on the woods and on the deep The smile of heaven lay.
It seemed as if the day were one Sent from beyond the skies, Which shed to earth above the sun A light of Paradise."
There is an "inviolable quietness" in all the air.
Some late roses have grown, and cl.u.s.ter round Lilian's window; stooping out, she kisses and caresses them, speaking to them as though they were (as indeed they are) her dear friends, when nurse's voice recalls her to the present, and the inner room.
"La, my dear," says Mrs. Tipping, "it is only four days since I washed it before."
"Never mind, ninny; wash it again. To-day is so delicious, with such a dear little breeze, and such a prodigality of sun, that I cannot resist it. You know how I love running through the air with my hair wet, and feeling the wind rus.h.i.+ng through it. And, nurse, be sure now"--coaxingly--"you put plenty of soda in the water."
"What, and rot all your pretty locks? Not I, indeed!" says nurse, with much determination.
"But you must; you will now, won't you?" in a wheedling tone. "It never stands properly out from my head unless it is full of soda."
"An' what, I wonder, would your poor mamma say to me if she could see me spoiling your bonny hair this day, an' it the very color of her own? No, no; I cannot indeed. It goes against my conscience, as it were. Go get some one else to wash it, not me; it would sadden me."
"If you won't wash it, no one else shall," pouts Lilian. And when Lilian pouts she looks so lovely, and so naughty, and so irresistible, that, instead of scolding her for ill-temper, every one instantly gives in to her. Nurse gives in, as she has done to her little mistress's pout ever since the latter was four years old, and forthwith produces soap and water and plenty of soda.
The long yellow hair being at length washed, combed out carefully, and brushed until it hangs heavily all down her back, Lilian administers a soft little kiss to her nurse as reward for her trouble, and runs delightedly down the stairs, straight into the open air, without hat, or covering of any kind for her head.
The garden is listless and sleepy. The bees are silent, the flowers are nodding drowsily, wakened into some sort of life by the teasing wind that sighs and laughs around them unceasingly. Lilian plucks a blossom here and there, and scatters far and near the gaudy b.u.t.terfly in very wantonness of enjoyment, while the wooing wind whistles through her hair, drying it softly, lovingly, until at last some of its pristine gloss returns to it, and its gold s.h.i.+nes with redoubled vigor beneath the sun's rays.
As she saunters, reveling--as one from Fairyland might revel--in the warmth and gladness of the great heathen G.o.d, she sings; and to Guy in his distant study the sound and the words come all too distinctly,--
"Why shouldn't I love my love?
Why shouldn't he love me?
Why shouldn't he come after me, Since love to all is free?"
Beneath his window she pauses, and, finally, running up the steps of the balcony, peers in, full of an idle curiosity.
Sir Guy's den is the most desirable room in the house,--the coziest, the oddest, the most interesting. Looking at it, one guesses instinctively how addicted to all pretty things the owner is, from women down to less costly _bijouterie_.
Lovely landscapes adorn the walls side by side with Greuze-like faces, angelic in expression, unlike in appearance. There are a few portraits of beauties well known in the London and Paris worlds, frail as they are fair, false as they are _piquante_, whose garments (to do him justice) are distinctly decent, perhaps more so than their characters. But then indecency has gone out of fas.h.i.+on.
There are two or three lounges, some priceless statuettes, a few bits of _bric-a-brac_ worth their weight in gold, innumerable yellow-backed volumes by Paul de k.o.c.k and his fellows, chairs of all shapes and sizes, one more comfortable and inviting than the other, enough meerschaum pipes and cigarette-holders and tobacco-stands to stock a small shop, a couple of dogs snoozing peacefully upon
On the wall she cannot see, there are a few hunters by Herring, a copy of Millais' "Yes or No," a good deal of stable-ware, and beneath them, on a table, more pipes, cheroots, and boxes of cigars, mixed up with straw-covered bottles of perfume, thrust rather ignominiously into the corner.
A shadow falling across the paper on which he is writing, Guy raises his head, to see a fairy vision staring in at him,--a little slight figure, clothed in airy black with daintiest lace frillings at the throat and wrists, and with a wealth of golden hair brought purposely all over her face, letting only the laughing sapphire eyes, blue as the skies above her, gleam out from among it.
"Open the door, O hermit, and let a poor wanderer in," croons this fairy, in properly saddened tones.
Rising gladly, he throws wide the window to her, whereupon she steps into the room, still with her face hidden.
"You come?" asks he, in a deferential tone.
"To know what you are doing, and what can keep you in-doors this exquisite day. Do you remember how late in the season it is? and that you are slighting Nature? She will be angry, and will visit you with storms and drooping flowers, if you persist in flouting her. Come out.
Come out."
"Who are you?" asks Guy. "Are you Flora?" He parts her hair gently and throws it back over her shoulders. "I thought you a nymph,--a fairy,--a small G.o.ddess, and----"
"And behold it is only Lilian! Naughty Lilian! Are you disappointed, Sir Guardian?" She laughs, and running her fingers through all her amber locks, spreading them out on either side of her like a silken veil, that extends as far as her arms can reach. She is lovely, radiant, bright as the day itself, fairer than the lazy flowers.
"What a child you are!" says Guy, with some discontent in his voice, feeling how far, _far_ younger than he she is.
"Am I? Nonsense! Nurse says," going to a gla.s.s and surveying herself with critical eyes, "nurse says I am a 'very well grown girl of my age.'" Almost unconsciously she a.s.sumes nurse's pompous though adoring manner to such perfection that Guy laughs heartily.
"That is right, Guardy," says Miss Lilian, with bland encouragement. "I like to hear you laugh; of late you have grown almost as discontented to look at as my cousin. Have I amused you?"
"Yes; your a.s.sumption of Mrs. Tipping was admirable. Though I am not sure that I agree with her: you are not very much grown, are you? I don't think you are up to my shoulder."
"What a tarradiddle!" says Lilian. "Get off that table directly and let me convince you."
As Guy obeys her and draws himself up to his liberal six feet one, she goes to him and lays her soft head against his arm, only to find he--not she--is right; she is half an inch below his shoulder. Standing so, it takes Guy all he knows to keep himself from throwing his arms round her and straining her to the heart that beats for her so pa.s.sionately,--that beats for her alone.
"You have raised your shoulder," she says, most unfairly: "it wasn't half so high yesterday. You shouldn't cheat!--What a charming room yours is! I quite envy it to you. And the flowers are so well selected. Who adorns your den so artistically? Florence? But of course it is the invaluable Florence: I might have known. That good creature always does the correct thing!"
"I think it is the mother sees to it," replies he, gently.
"Oh, is it? Kind auntie! What a delicious little bit of blue!
Forget-me-not, is it? How innocent it looks, and babyish, in its green leaves! May I rob you, Sir Guy? I should like a spray or two for my dress."
"You may have anything you wish that I can give you."
"What a n.o.ble offer!--Are you going to waste much more time over your tiresome letters?" glancing with pretty impertinence at the half-finished sheets lying on the table near her: "I suppose they are all business, or love, or suchlike rubbis.h.!.+ Well, good-bye, Guardy, I must go and finish the drying of my hair; you will find me in the garden when you come to the end of your last _billet-doux_."
So saying, she trips away from him down the handsome oak-paneled room, and disappears through the doorway that leads into the hall.
Where she goes the suns.h.i.+ne seems to follow her. To Guy's fancy it appears as though a shadow has fallen suddenly into the room, when the last glimpse of her yellow hair has vanished out of sight. With a rather abstracted air he betakes himself once more to his writing, and tries to forget her.
But somehow the impetus that urged him on half an hour ago is wanting; the spur to his industry has lost its sharpness; and presently, throwing down his pen with an impatient gesture, he acknowledges himself no longer in the mood for work.
What a child she is!--again the thought occurs to him;--yet with what power to torture! To-day all sweetness and honeyed gayety, to-morrow indifferent, if not actually repellent. She is an anomaly,--a little frail lily beset with thorns that puts forth its stings to wound, and probe, and madden, when least expected.
Only yesterday--after an hour's inward conflict--he had convinced himself of her love for her cousin Archibald, with such evident pleasure did she receive his very marked attentions. And now,--to-day,--surely if she loved Chesney her eyes could not have dwelt so kindly upon another as they did a few minutes since upon her guardian. With what a pretty grace she had demanded that blue forget-me-not and placed it in the bosom of her dress! With what evident sincerity she had hinted at her wish to see him in the garden when his work should be over!
Perhaps--perhaps----
Of late a pa.s.sionate desire to tell her of the affection with which she has inspired him consumes him daily,--hourly; but a fear, a sad certainty of disappointment to follow on his declaration has..h.i.therto checked the words that so often tremble on his lips. Now the unwonted gentleness of her manner tempts him to follow her and put his fate "to the touch," and so end all the jealous anguish and heart-burnings that torment him all day long.
Quitting his sanctum, he crosses the hall, and enters the drawing-room, where he finds Florence alone.
She is, as usual, bending industriously over her crewel work; the parrot's tail is now in a high state of perfection, not a color in the rainbow being missing from it. Seeing Guy, she raises her head and smiles upon him sweetly, blandly, invitingly.
"Where is Lilian?" asks Guy, abruptly, with all the tactless truthfulness of a man when he has one absorbing object in view.
Miss Beauchamp's bland smile freezes on her lips, and shows itself no more. She makes answer, nevertheless, in an unmoved tone: