In the morning Barney took Marsten to the house of the friendly
gardener, whose good will had been secured through the corrupting
influences of wealth, and there the young man donned the blouse that was
supposed to give him that horticultural air necessary for the part he
had to play. Marsten was very serious about it; but Barney seemed to
enjoy the masquerade to the utmost, and wanted to take the amateur
gardener to be photographed, so that there might be a picture as a
memento of the occasion.
At last Marsten got away, with the broom on his shoulder, and,
presenting himself at High Cliff grounds, was admitted without question.
He made no attempt to conceal from himself the fact that he did not like
the fraud he was about to practise, but when his conscience upbraided
him, he asked of it what better plan it had to propose, and to this
there was no reply.
The grounds were empty when he reached them, and with his natural
shrewdness he applied himself first to the walks that were in public
view; so that, when the young girls came out, he might be in the more
secluded portion of the plantation, where he was sure the rules of the
school would require them to take the air. His surmise proved correct,
and the young man felt more embarrassed than he had even suspected he
would be, when he suddenly found himself in the midst of a fluttering
bevy of girls, all chattering, but happily none paying the least
attention to him. He had not counted on the presence of any of the
teachers; but three of them were there, who, however, sat on a garden
seat and did not seem overburdened with anxiety about the pupils under
their care.
Edna Sartwell had a book in her hand, with a finger between the pages,
but she walked up and down with another girl, talking in a low tone.
Marsten hoped the book was an interesting one, and wished the girl would
go into some secluded corner to read it; for he began to see that his
enterprise was not going to be so easy of accomplishment as he expected,
even though he had gained admittance to the grounds, which at first had
seemed the most difficult move in the game. The book at last gave him
the opportunity he sought: Edna and her companion stood together for a
moment after their walk, then each went her separate way.
In a corner of the grounds was a secluded summerhouse, screened from the
view of the school by a wilderness of trees and shrubs, almost out of
hearing of the lively chatter that made the air merry elsewhere; and to
this quiet spot Edna betook herself, reading the book as she walked,
for the paths thither were evidently familiar to her. Marsten followed,
slowly at first, then more quickly as the chances of observation
lessened, his heart beating faster than the exertion he was making
warranted. The girl was seated in the little _châlet_ when Marsten’s
figure darkened the entrance.
“Miss Sartwell,” was all he could say.
Edna sprang to her feet, letting the book fall to the floor, and looked
at him with startled eyes that had no recognition in them.
“I see you don’t know me, and no wonder; for I did not wear gardener’s
clothes when I stood last in your garden.”
A bright flush of pleasure overspread the girl’s face, and laughter came
first to her eyes, then to her lips.
“How you frightened me!” she said, seeming anything but frightened, and
quite unable to restrain her merriment, as her glance flashed up and
down his uncouth apparel. “Have you become gardener here, then, or did
you come over the wall?”
“The walls here are too high, or I might have attempted them. I am
gardener for the day only, and merely to get a word with you.”
“With me? I thought the strike had happily ended. Haven’t you gone back
to work? How did you get away?”
“Oh, there was no difficulty about that! I can always get a day off when
I want it. Yes, I went back to work and have been busy ever since.
I came here yesterday in the hope of seeing you. It was very
important--for me, at least.”
“Has the desired promotion come so soon, then, or do you think I must
speak to my father about your position when I next see him? I expected
him here before this, but he writes that there is so much to be done,
now the men are back, that he will be unable to come for perhaps a week
or more.”
“I have not come here to beg for your father’s favour, but for yours. I
love you, Edna, and I have loved you ever since I first saw you!
Don’t imagine I am so--so conceited--that I have even a hope that
you--you--care for me, for of course you don’t and can’t; but I wanted
you to know. I wanted to tell you, and that is why I am here. I am
poor,--I don’t deny that,--but your father was also poor once, and
he has got on in the world. I will get on; I will work night and day.
Whoever my master is, I will serve him faithfully,--my God! I will serve
him on my knees, if that will convince him of my earnestness to win
confidence and a place of trust,--and all the time cheerfully and
hopefully, with your picture in my mind, as it has been in my mind--for
so long--from the first. You see, I have no chance to win you as another
might. You are in this school for the very purpose of keeping me
from meeting you as I might meet you if I were rich. I have no fair
chance--none at all, except what I steal for myself, as I have done
to-day. It means so much to me--everything!--that I did not dare to take
the risk. I know I have spoken too soon--too abruptly--but I dared not
set my face at what is before me unless you knew. Some one might win you
while I was working for you--there will be plenty to try. I don’t
want you to say a word--I want neither hope nor discouragement--no
promise--nothing! You know, and that is enough for me now. But I would
like you to remember--sometimes--that there is no man striving as
I shall strive. Think of that--when others speak. My darling--my
darling--no man ever felt as I feel since the beginning of the world!”
Whatever diffidence Marsten hitherto experienced in Edna’s presence
melted in the fervent heat of his passion when he began to speak. The
words rushed forth, treading on the heels of those gone before, in
jumbled, breathless procession; his face was aflame, and his nether lip
trembled when he ceased to speak. At first he seemed to be running a
race against time--they might be interrupted at any moment; but he soon
forgot his competitor, and, so far as he was concerned, no one existed
in the world but himself and the trembling, confused girl before him.
She, after her first look of amazed incredulity, felt backward with her
hand for the support of the wall, and then gradually sank upon the seat,
an expression, partly fear, overspreading her now colourless face. As
Marsten went impetuously on, her head dropped upon her hands, and thus
she remained while he spoke.
A pause ensued, so deep and silent that Marsten, as he leaned his hand
against the door-post, afraid to move forward or retreat, heard the
distant girlish laughter, free from any thought of problems other than
those of the schoolroom. He knew he should remember every trivial detail
of the place all his life,--the broom that lay at his feet; the book
which had fallen open-leaved upon the floor; even the title glittering
in gold on the side, which sent no meaning to his mind except one
word that caught his attention,--“Courtship” (“The Courtship of
Miles Standish” was the whole phrase), and he wondered vaguely if the
courtship had prospered. Rapidly as his wondering eye gathered up the
accessories of the scene, it always returned to the bowed and silent
figure before him, and something in the outlines of her drooping
shoulders told him intuitively of a change--elusive, but real. His mind
had been too much occupied with the hard realities of life to indulge
in speculative analysis of any sort, but now it was uplifted, touched by
the magic wand of love, and endowed with: a subtle perception unknown to
him before. He saw that the girl, who, as a child, welcomed him, would,
as a woman, bid him farewell.
At last she slowly shook her head.
“It cannot be--it cannot be!” she murmured.
“Not now. I know that--I don’t ask that!” he cried, eagerly. “But--some
time--some time?”
The girl did not look up.
“It can never be--never!” she said.
“All I want is a chance--a fair chance. Don’t--oh, please don’t say ‘No’
or ‘Yes’ now! Your father is prejudiced against me, I know; not against
me personally, I think, but because I am poor: it is only another
expression of his great love for you. He knows what poverty is, and he
wants to shield you from it. He is right, and if I am as poor two years
from now, or four years, I shall not ask--”
“Does my father know?”
“Yes. I told him that night--the night you first spoke to me. That is
why he is angry.”
“Then that is why you--that is the reason--when you were in the
garden----”
“Yes, that is why I was afraid to have him find me there.”
Again there was a long silence between them. The thoughts of the girl
ranged back over her past life, from the time her father forbade her to
come to the office until the present moment, flashing like a searchlight
upon events hitherto misunderstood, making them stand out in their
true proportions. All her father’s actions, his words, had to be
reconsidered. She saw meanings in former phrases that had been hidden
from her: she had now the key that unlocked the room illumined
by knowledge; and although her heart yearned towards her father,
sympathizing with him when confronted by an unexpected problem, and
fully condoning his apparent lack of trust in keeping her ignorant of a
situation so closely concerning herself, feeling that she ought to stand
by him and repel the stranger who had so daringly come between them with
his preposterous claim upon her affection, yet from no part of her
being could she call to her aid that emotion of just resentment against
Marsten which she knew ought to be at her command.
“I am very, very sorry,” she said at last, speaking slowly. “I like you,
of course--I think you are a noble, earnest man, and that you will do
good and overcome many difficulties; but I don’t care for you in the way
you wish, and it would not be right to be dishonest with you. I should
like to see you get on in the world, and I am sure you will. Some day
you will write to me and tell me of your victories, and I shall be glad.
It will make me happy then to know you have forgotten--this. Now you
must go. Good-by!”
She rose, holding out her hand to him, and he saw her eyes were wet.
“Good-by!” he said, turning away.
Edna sat down, but did not pick up her book. With her hands listless
in her lap, she gazed out at the blue sky, thinking. Presently, to her
surprise, Marsten returned.
“You have forgotten your broom,” she said, with a wavering smile
trembling on her lips.
“I had forgotten more than that,” he said, “I had forgotten my mission.”
“Your mission?”
“Yes; my false pretences do not stop at climbing walls. I am really a
traitorous messenger; for the device by which I came here was arranged
by another, who wished me to take a letter to you. He is in Eastbourne,
and had written to you, but his letter was returned to him. He has
written another--here it is.”
“Of whom are you speaking?”
“Mr. Barnard Hope.”
“Oh!”
She took the letter. Marsten lifted his broom and went away. He
wanted to leave the place and get back to London; but the gardener
had cautioned him not to return until the sweeping was finished, while
Barney himself impressed upon him the necessity of allowing no suspicion
to arise, as it might be needful to despatch another messenger on a
similar errand. So he kept on sweeping the _débris_ into little heaps by
the side of the path. The schoolgirls disappeared into the house by twos
and threes, until he found himself once more alone, and yet he did not
see Edna come from the summer-house. He moved nearer and nearer with his
work to the place where they had met, hoping to catch a parting glimpse
of her as she walked towards the house. At last she came out; but
instead of taking the direct path to the house she came towards him,
with the thin volume she had been reading in her hand. There was
a slight increase of the usual colour in her cheeks, but with that
exception she had succeeded in suppressing all trace of her emotion.
She looked at him with what seemed, at first, all her former
straightforwardness; but, as he met her gaze, he saw it was not quite
the same: a misty shadow of difference veiled her honest eyes, so like
her father’s, but so much kindlier.
“I have brought you this book,” she said, holding it out to him, “and I
want you to keep it. It is the story of a messenger who was true to the
trust of the one who sent him, and yet who failed.”
“But you have not read the book yourself?” he replied, taking the
volume, nevertheless.
“Oh, yes, I have. I was reading it for the second time to-day.”
As he hastily concealed the book under his blouse, he looked anxiously
about him, fearing they might be observed, unwilling to compromise her
in the least. The craft of a man is rarely equal to that of a woman,
no matter how young she may be. Edna smiled as she noticed his
perturbation.
“There is no one to see us,” she said, “and if there were, it would not
matter. They would merely think I was giving improving literature and
good advice to an under-gardener--which, indeed, is exactly what I am
doing when I tell him to work hard, and--forget!”
As Edna said this she opened her hand and allowed to flutter upon the
heap at his feet the minute fragments of a letter, which floated down
through the air like a miniature snowfall, and she was gone before he
could say “Good-by” for the second time.
Marsten stood there looking down at the bits of torn paper scattered
over the heap, the remnants, undoubtedly, of the letter he had brought;
and although he had had no word of encouragement--which, in spite of his
disclaimer, he had yearned to hear--each separate piece of white paper
reflected upwards to him a ray of hope.