“A creature not too bright or good
For human nature’s daily food;
For transient sorrows, simple wiles,
Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears and smiles.”
“Come out for a boat-ride,” Robert called to Meg, who was hemming
kitchen towels on her rose-embowered porch. She had seen him between
the leaves, as he came striding up the walk, but gave a very natural
start of surprise when he spoke. “I’m not deaf,” was her rejoinder, as
she kept on with her sewing.
“Neither am I dumb,” retorted Robert, turning around and starting down
the path.
Meg flung the towel from her, scattered thread, thimble and scissors in
every direction as she flew down the steps and overtook him. “What was
your first remark?” she asked demurely.
He looked down at her, and tried to preserve his dignity, but the eyes
which met his were so innocent and wide opened, the little white face
so alluring, that his anger melted, and he said, “I asked you to go
boating.”
“Oh, you yelled so that I didn’t distinguish what you said. Yes, oh,
yes,” catching his arm as he started away again, “certainly I will go
with you. It’s a lovely day, isn’t it?”
His eyes smiled into hers as he said gently, “Well, get your hat. I’ll
wait here for you.”
She was gone only a moment, and rejoined him with her big hat thrown
back somewhat rakishly on her head. “Aunt Amelia is cross. She wanted
me to wash her hair for her, but I told her I was no lady’s maid.”
Her eyes sought his face and found no response to her frivolity.
“Perhaps you think I should have stayed at home to wash her hair,” she
suggested anxiously.
Then, as he still did not answer, she stopped and said in an offended
tone, “Oh, well, if _that’s_ the way you feel about it, I’ll go back
and do it.”
Robert turned and said to her gravely, “It is not for me to say whether
you shall or shall not wash your aunt’s hair, but if you must have the
truth, I think your manner of refusing a trifle rude.”
She flushed, and the quick tears came to her eyes, but she kept a brave
appearance as she said, “Perhaps I was rude, but if you had to live
with Aunt Amelia and wait on her like a slave, as I do, you might
forget your manners, too, sometimes.”
He turned and looked at her as he said, “I don’t want to quarrel with
you to-day, little girl. You may be as rude as you please to your aunt,
only be good to me.”
Her eyes flashed up with sudden joy, and she looked quickly at him, but
the calm, impersonal glance she met, quelled the thought she had
entertained for that brief second.
Then she said contritely: “I _do_ owe every thing to Aunt Amelia, for I
couldn’t live on my pittance anywhere else,—but I do, truly I do, earn
my board. However, if you say so, I’ll go right back now and apologize
to her.”
“Oh, don’t do that,” he hastily interposed; “the apology will keep, and
the daylight won’t.”
When they reached the river, he helped her into the boat, and taking
off his coat, folded it for her to sit on.
Neither was talkative at first, both preferring their thoughts to idle
conversation. Meg watched him warily, taking in the splendid muscular
development of his arms and chest, the straight, clean-cut features in
a face that in repose was somewhat grave and stern, but infinitely
tender and charming when he smiled. She was wishing, as she gazed at
him, that Fate had given her a brother like him.
As for Robert, with eyes on the setting sun, his reveries were of the
life about to open for him. For the time being he had forgotten his
companion, and was holding pleasurable communion with himself, absorbed
in the contemplation of his usefulness when once he had entered upon
that mission for which he had been always fitting himself. He was
aroused by an almost inaudible sigh, and he glanced across at Meg with
eyes which were as yet blind to emotion.
She was not looking at him now, and he watched her with satisfaction.
She had puzzled and bewildered him ever since he had met her, and he
had only occasionally had glimpses of her real character. There were
times when he distinctly disapproved of her, and his training had been
such that he considered it almost an imperative duty to tell her of it.
Then with a quick subtle change of manner she would do something, some
little gracious act, that would cause him to repent of his harsher
judgment. But through all the varied changes of her moods, she
attracted him.
She had fallen into one of her silences, and sat looking out over the
water with an expression so tender and childish, that for some reason
he would have been unable to explain, a great wave of pity swept over
him, and the longing to shelter her from harm became uppermost in his
mind.
When she spoke, it was dreamily. “I do love the water, and the sunset,
and the sound of the oars as they lap the waves.” Then, in a more
sprightly manner,—“It has the effect of shaded lights and soft music. I
am so _good_ at such times! All my thoughts are uplifting. Do you feel
that way?”
Amused by her vagaries, he nodded, and the encouragement started her
off again: “I almost weep to think how noble I am. Nothing that is
petty or mean has any connection with me. Even Aunt Amelia I view
through that rosy mist, and conjure up the kind things she _might_ have
done, the tender words she _might_ have spoken,—and I think with a
swelling heart that I will try to appreciate those ‘might have
beens,’—that I will so conduct myself as to make them possible.”
“And then?” as she paused.
“Oh, then,” with a trace of bitterness in her voice, “then the red
lights flicker and go out, and the pungent odor of kerosene oil is all
that remains of them. The music stops with a last protesting wail of
the violin, and the musicians hurry away after their beer and
pretzels.”
“And what becomes of you and your noble thoughts?”
“Oh, I take my noble thoughts and go home, and quarrel with Aunt
Amelia.”
Robert laughed so heartily that Meg leaned forward and said: “Sometimes
I light the piano-lamp, and start the music-box going in the parlor
after I go home.”
As they walked up the flower-bordered path to the house, Meg remarked
softly, “I feel that I could wash and crimp Auntie’s hair, and make it
look just lovely, now.”