LA FLEUR ASSUMES RESPONSIBILITIES
It was toward the middle of the afternoon that the good La Fleur sat
upon a bench under a tree by the side of the noble mansion of
Cobhurst. She was enjoying the scene and allowing her mind to revel in
the future she had planned for herself. She was not even thinking of
the dinner. Presently there drove into the grounds a boy in a
bowl-shaped trotting-wagon, bringing a telegram for Mr. Haverley. La
Fleur went to meet him.
"He is not at home," she said.
"Well," said the boy, "there is seventy-five cents to pay, and perhaps
there is an answer."
"Are you sure the message was not prepaid?" asked La Fleur, suspiciously.
"Oh, the seventy-five cents is for delivery," said the boy. "We deliver
free in town, but we can't come way out here in the country for nothing.
Isn't there somebody here who can 'tend to it?"
La Fleur drew a wallet from her pocket. "I will pay you," she said;
"but if there is an answer you should take it back with you. Can't you
wait a bit?"
"No," said the boy, "I can't. I shall be away from the office too long
as it is."
La Fleur was in a quandary; there was no one at home but herself; a
telegram is always important; very likely an immediate answer was
required; and here was an opportunity to send one. If the message were
from his sister, there might be something which she could answer. At any
rate, it was an affair that must not be neglected, and Mr. Haverley had
gone off with his fishing-rod, and no one knew when he would get back.
"Wait one minute," she said to the boy, and she hurried into the kitchen
with the telegram. She put on her spectacles and looked at it; the
envelope was very slightly fastened. No doubt this was something that
needed attention, and the boy would not wait. Telegrams were not like
private letters, anyway, and she would take the risk. So she opened the
envelope without tearing it, and read the message. First she was
frightened, and then she was puzzled.
"Well, I can't answer that," she said, "and I suppose he will go as soon
as he gets it."
She laid the telegram on the kitchen table and went out to the impatient
boy, and told him there was no answer. Whereupon he departed at the top
of his pony's speed.
La Fleur returned to the kitchen and reread the telegram. The signature
was not very legible, and in her first hasty reading she had not made it
out, but now she deciphered it.
"Panney!" she exclaimed, "R. Panney! I believe it is from that tricky old
woman!" And with her elbows on the table she gave herself up to the study
of the telegram. "I never saw anything like it," she thought. "It looks
exactly as if she wanted to frighten him without telling him what has
happened. It could not be worse than it is, even if his sister is dead,
and if that were so, anybody would telegraph that she was very ill, so as
not to let it come on him too sudden. Nothing can be more dreadful than
what he'll think when he reads this. One thing is certain: she meant him
to go when he got it. Yes, indeed!" And a smile came upon her face as she
thought. "She wants him there; that is as plain as daylight."
At this moment a step was heard outside, and the telegram was slipped
into the table drawer. La Fleur arose and approached the open door; there
she saw Phoebe.
"How d'ye do, ma'am?" said that individual. "Do let me come in an' sit
down, for I'm nearly tired to death, an' so cross that I'd like to
fight a cat."
"What has happened to you?" asked La Fleur, when she and her visitor had
seated themselves.
"Nothin'," replied Phoebe, "except that I've been sent on a fool's
errand, an' made to walk all the way from Thorbury, here, an' a longer
an' a dirtier an' a rockier road I never went over. I thought two or
three times that I should just drop. If I'd knowed how stiff my j'ints
would be, I wouldn't 'a' come, no matter what she said."
"She said," repeated La Fleur. "Who?"
"That old Miss Panney!" said Phoebe, with a snap. "She sent me out
here to look after Mike, an' was too stingy even to pay my hack fare.
She wanted me to come day before yesterday, but I couldn't get away
'til to-day."
"Where is Miss Panney?" asked La Fleur, quickly.
"She's gone to the seashore, where the Bannisters an' Miss Miriam is. She
said she'd come here herself if it hadn't been for goin' thar."
"To look after Mike?" asked the other.
"Not 'zactly," said Phoebe, with a grin. "There's other things here she
wanted to look after."
"Upon my word!" exclaimed La Fleur, "I can't imagine what there is on
this place that Miss Panney need concern herself about."
"There isn't no place," said Phoebe, "where there isn't somethin' that
Miss Panney wants to consarn herself in."
La Fleur looked at Phoebe, and then dropped the subject.
"Don't you want a cup of tea?" she asked, a glow of hospitality suddenly
appearing on her face. "That will set you up sooner than anything else,
and perhaps I can find a piece of one of those meat pies your husband
likes so much."
Phoebe was not accustomed to being waited upon by white people, and to
have a repast prepared for her by this cook of high degree flattered her
vanity and wonderfully pleased her. Her soul warmed toward the good woman
who was warming and cheering her body.
"I say it again," remarked La Fleur, "that I cannot think what that old
lady should want to look after in this house."
"Now look here, madam," said Phoebe, "it's jes' nothin' at all. It's
jes' the most nonsensical thing that ever was. I don't mind tellin' you
about it; don't mind it a bit. She wants Mr. Hav'ley to marry Miss Dora
Bannister, an' she's on pins an' needles to know if the young woman here
is likely to ketch him. That's all there is 'bout it. She don't care two
snaps for Mike, an' I reckon he don't want no looking after anyway."
"No, indeed," answered the other; "I take the best of care of him. Miss
Panney must be dreadful afraid of our young lady, eh?"
"That's jes' what she is," said Phoebe. "I wonder she didn't take Mr.
Hav'ley along with her when she went to the seashore."
La Fleur's eyes sparkled.
"Now come, Phoebe," said she; "what on earth did she want you to do
here?"
Phoebe took a long draught of tea, and put down the cup, with a sigh
of content.
"Oh, nothin'," said she. "She jes' wanted me to spy round, an' see if Mr.
Hav'ley an' Miss Drane was fallin' in love with each other, an' then I
was to go an' tell her about it the mornin' before she started. Now I'll
have to keep it 'til she comes back, but I reckon thar ain't nothin' to
tell about."
La Fleur laughed. "Nothing at all," said she. "You might stay here a week
and you wouldn't see any lovemaking between those two. They don't as much
as think of such a thing. So you need not put yourself to any trouble
about that part of Miss Panney's errand. Here comes your good Michael,
and I think you will find that he is doing very well."
About ten minutes after this, when Phoebe and Mike had gone off to talk
over their more than semi-detached domestic affairs, La Fleur took the
telegram from the drawer, replaced it in its envelope, which she closed
and fastened so neatly that no one would have supposed that it had been
opened. Then she took from a shelf a railroad time-table, which lay in
company with her cookbook and a few other well-worn volumes; for the good
cook cared for reading very much as she cared for her own mayonnaise
dressing; she wanted but little at a time, but she liked it.
"The last train to the city seems to be seven-ten," she said to herself.
"No other train after that stops at Thorbury. If he had been at home he
would have taken an early afternoon train, which was what she expected, I
suppose. It will be a great pity for him to have to go tonight, and for
no other reason than for that old trickster's telegram. If anything has
really happened, he'll get news of it in some sensible shape."
At all events, there was nothing now to be done with the telegram, so she
put it on the shelf, and set about her preparations for dinner, which had
been very much delayed.
Ralph had gone off fishing; but, before starting, he had put Mrs.
Browning to the gig and had told Cicely that as soon as her work was
finished, she must take her mother for a drive. The girl had been
delighted, and the two had gone off for a long jog through the
country lanes.
It was late in the afternoon when Ralph came striding homeward
across the fields. He was still a mile from Cobhurst, and on a bit of
rising ground when, on the road below him, he saw Mrs. Browning and
the gig, and to his surprise the good old mare was demurely trotting
away from Cobhurst.
"Can it be possible," he exclaimed, "that they have just started!" And
he hurried down toward the road. He now saw that there was only one
person in the gig, and very soon he was near enough to perceive that
this was Cicely.
"I expect you are wondering what I am doing here by myself, and where I
am going," she said, when she stopped and he stood by the gig. "I shall
tell you the exact truth, because I know you will not mind. We started
out a long time ago, but mother had a headache, and the motion of the gig
made it worse. She was trying to bear it so that I might have a drive,
but I insisted upon turning back. I took her as far as the orchard, where
I left her, and since then I have been driving about by myself and having
an awfully good time. Mother did not mind that, as I promised not to go
far away. But I think I have now gone far enough along this road. I like
driving ever so much! Don't you want me to drive you home?"
"Indeed I do!" said Ralph, and in he jumped.
"I expect Miriam must be enjoying this lovely evening," she said. "And
she will see the sun set from the beach, for Barport faces westward, and
I never saw a girl enjoy sunsets as she does. At this moment I expect her
face is as bright as the sky."
"And wouldn't you like to be standing by her?" asked Ralph.
Cicely shook her head. "No," she said. "To speak truly, I should rather
be here. We used to go a good deal to the seashore, but this is the first
time that I ever really lived in the country, and it is so charming I
would not lose a day of it, and there cannot be very many more days of
it, anyway."
"Why not?" asked Ralph.
"I am now copying chapter twenty-seventh of the doctor's book, and there
are only thirty-one in all. And as to his other work, that will not
occupy me very long."
Ralph was about to ask a question, but, instead, he involuntarily grasped
one of the little gloved hands that held the reins.
"Pull that," he said quickly. "You must always turn to the right when you
meet a vehicle."
Cicely obeyed, but when they had passed a wagon, drawn by a team of oxen,
she said, "But there was more room on the other side."
"That may be," replied Ralph, with a laugh, "but when you are driving,
you must not rely too much on your reason, but must follow rules and
tradition."
"If I knew as much about driving as I like it," said she, "I should be a
famous whip. Before we go, I am going to ask Miriam to take me out with
her, two or three times, and give me lessons in driving. She told me that
you had taught her a great deal."
"So you would be willing to take your tuition secondhand," said Ralph. "I
am a much better teacher than Miriam is."
"Would you like to make up a class?" she asked. "But I do not know how
the teacher and the two pupils could ride in this gig. Oh, I see. Miriam
and I could sit here, and you could walk by our side and instruct us, and
when the one who happened to be driving should make a mistake, she would
give up her seat and the reins, and go to the foot of her class."
"Class indeed!" exclaimed Ralph; "I'll have none of it. I will take you
out tomorrow and give you a lesson."
So they went gayly on till they came to a grassy hill which shut out the
western view.
"Do you think I could go through that gate," asked Cicely, "and drive
Mrs. Browning up that hill? There is going to be a grand sunset, and we
should get a fine view of it up there."
"No," said Ralph, "let us get out and walk up, and as Mrs. Browning can
see the barn, we will not worry her soul by tying her to the fence. I
shall let her go home by herself, and you will see how beautifully she
will do it."
So they got out, and Ralph having fastened the reins to the dashboard,
clicked to the old mare, who walked away by herself. Cicely was greatly
interested, and the two stood and watched the sober-minded animal as she
made her way home as quietly and properly as if she had been driven. When
she entered the gate of the barnyard, and stopped at the stable door,
Ralph remarked that she would stand there until Mike came out, and then
the two went into the field and walked up the hill.
"I once had a scolding from Miriam for doing that sort of thing," said
Ralph; "but you do not seem to object."
"I do not know enough yet," cried Cicely, who had begun to run up the
hill; "wait until I have had my lessons."
They stood together at the top of the little eminence.
"I wonder," said Cicely, "if Miriam ever comes upon this hill at sunset.
Perhaps she has never thought of it."
Ralph did not know; but the mention of Miriam's name caused him to think
how little he had missed his sister, who had seemed to live in his life
as he had lived in hers. It was strange, and he could not believe that he
would so easily adapt himself to the changed circumstances of his home
life. There was another thing of which he did not think, and that was
that he had not missed Dora Bannister. It is true that he had never seen
much of that young lady; but he had thought so much about her, and made
so many plans in regard to her, and had so often hoped that he might see
her drive up to the Cobhurst door, and had had such charming
recollections of the hours she had spent in his home, and of the travels
they had taken together by photograph, her blue eyes lifted to his as if
in truth she leaned upon his arm as they walked through palace and park,
that it was wonderful that he did not notice that for days his thoughts
had not dwelt upon her.
When the gorgeous color began to fade out of the sky, Cicely said her
mother would be wondering what had become of her, and together they went
down the hill, and along the roadside, where they stopped to pick some
tall sprays of goldenrod, and through the orchard, and around by the
barnyard, where Mike was milking, and where Ralph stopped while Cicely
went on to the house.
Phoebe was standing down by the entrance gate. She was waiting for an
oxcart, whose driver had promised to take her with him on his return to
Thorbury. She had arranged with a neighbor to prepare the minister's
supper, but she must be on hand to give him his breakfast. As there was
nothing to interest her at Cobhurst, and nothing to report, she was glad
to go, and considered this oxcart a godsend, for her plan of getting Mike
to drive her over in the spring cart had not been met with favor.
Waiting at the gateway, she had seen Ralph and Cicely walk up the hill,
and watched them standing together, ever and ever so long, looking at the
sky, and she had kept her eyes on them as they came down the hill,
stopped to pick flowers which he gave to her, and until they had
disappeared among the trees of the orchard.
"Upon my word an' honor!" ejaculated Mrs. Robinson, "if that old French
slop-cook hasn't lied to me, wus than Satan could do hisself! If them
two ain't lovers, there never was none, an' that old heathen sinner
thought she could clap a coffee bag over my head so that I couldn't see
nothin' nor tell nothin'. She might as well a' slapped me in the face,
the sarpent!"
And unable, by reason of her indignation, to stand still any longer, she
walked up the road to meet the returning oxcart, whose wheels could be
heard rumbling in the distance.
La Fleur had seen the couple standing together on the little hill, but
she had thought it a pity to disturb their tête-à-tête.