CAP'S VISIT TO THE HIDDEN HOUSE.
And such a night "she" took the road in
As ne'er poor sinner was abroad in.
The wind blew as 'twad blawn its last
The rattling showers rose on the blast;
The speedy gleams the darkness swallowed;
Loud, deep and long the thunder bellowed;
That night a child might understand
The de'il had business on his hand.
--Burns.
A week passed before Capitola carried her resolution of calling upon
the inmate of the Hidden House into effect. It was in fact a hot, dry,
oppressive season, the last few days of August, when all people, even
the restless Capitola, preferred the coolness and repose of indoors.
But that she should stay at home more than a week was a moral and
physical impossibility. So on Thursday afternoon, when Major Warfield
set out on horseback to visit his mill, Capitola ordered her horse
saddled and brought up that she might take an afternoon's ride.
"Now please, my dear child, don't go far," said Mrs. Condiment, "for
besides that your uncle does not approve of your riding alone, you must
hurry back to avoid the storm."
"Storm, Mrs. Condiment, why bless your dear old heart, there has not
been a storm these four weeks!" said Capitola, almost indignant that
such an absurd objection to a long ride should be raised.
"The more reason, my child, that we should have a very severe one when
it does come, and I think it will be upon us before sunset; so I advise
you to hurry home."
"Why, Mrs. Condiment, there's not a cloud in the sky."
"So much the worse, my dear! The blackest cloud that ever gathered is
not so ominous of mischief as this dull, coppery sky and still
atmosphere! And if forty years' observation of weather signs goes for
anything, I tell you that we are going to have the awfulest storm that
ever gathered in the heavens! Why, look out of that window--the very
birds and beasts know it, and instinctively seek shelter--look at that
flock of crows flying home! See how the dumb beasts come trooping
toward their sheds! Capitola, you had better give up going altogether,
my dear!"
"There! I thought all this talk tended to keeping me within doors, but
I can't stay, Mrs. Condiment! Good Mrs. Condiment, I can't!"
"But, my dear, if you should be caught out in the storm!"
"Why, I don't know but I should like it! What harm could it do? I'm not
soluble in water--rain won't melt me away! I think upon the whole I
rather prefer being caught in the storm," said Cap, perversely.
"Well, well, there is no need of that! You may ride as far as the
river's bank and back again in time to escape, if you choose!" said
Mrs. Condiment, who saw that her troublesome charge was bent upon the
frolic.
And Cap, seeing her horse approach, led by one of the grooms, ran
up-stairs, donned her riding habit, hat and gloves, ran down again,
sprang into her saddle and was off, galloping away toward the river
before Mrs. Condiment could add another word of warning.
She had been gone about an hour, when the sky suddenly darkened, the
wind rose and the thunder rolled in prelude to the storm.
Major Warfield came skurrying home from the mill, grasping his bridle
with one hand and holding his hat on with the other.
Meeting poor old Ezy in the shrubbery, he stormed out upon him with:
"What are you lounging there for, you old idiot! You old sky-gazing
lunatic! Don't you see that we are going to have an awful blow! Begone
with you and see that the cattle are all under shelter! Off, I say,
or," he rode toward Bill Ezy, but the old man, exclaiming:
"Yes, sir--yes, sir! In coorse, sir!" ducked his head and ran off in
good time.
Major Warfield quickened his horse's steps and rode to the house,
dismounted and threw the reins to the stable boy, exclaiming:
"My beast is dripping with perspiration--rub him down well, you knave,
or I'll impale you!"
Striding into the hall, he threw down his riding whip, pulled off his
gloves and called:
"Wool! Wool, you scoundrel, close every door and window in the house!
Call all the servants together in the dining-room; we're going to have
one of the worst tempests that ever raised!"
Wool flew to do his bidding.
"Mrs. Condiment, mum," said the old man, striding into the
sitting-room, "Mrs. Condiment, mum, tell Miss Black to come down from
her room until the storm is over; the upper chambers of this old house
are not safe in a tempest. Well, mum, why don't you go, or send
Pitapat?"
"Major Warfield, sir, I'm very sorry, but Miss Black has not come in
yet," said Mrs. Condiment, who for the last half hour had suffered
extreme anxiety upon account of Capitola.
"Not come in yet! Demmy, mum! Do you tell me she has gone out?" cried
Old Hurricane, in a voice of thunder, gathering his brows into a dark
frown, and striking his cane angrily upon the floor.
"Yes, sir, I am sorry to say she rode out about an hour ago and has not
returned," said Mrs. Condiment, summoning all her firmness to meet Old
Hurricane's 'roused wrath."
"Ma'am! You venture to stand there before my face and tell me
composedly that you permitted Miss Black to go off alone in the face of
such a storm as this?" roared Old Hurricane.
"Sir, I could not help it!" said the old lady.
"Demmy, mum! You should have helped it! A woman of your age to stand
there and tell me that she could not prevent a young creature like
Capitola from going out alone in the storm!"
"Major Warfield, could you have done it?"
"Me? Demmy, I should think so; but that is not the question! You----"
He was interrupted by a blinding flash of lightning, followed
immediately by an awful peal of thunder and a sudden fall of rain.
Old Hurricane sprang up as though he had been shot off his chair and
trotted up and down the floor exclaiming:
"And she--she out in all this storm! Mrs. Condiment, mum, you deserve
to be ducked! Yes, mum, you do! Wool! Wool! you diabolical villain!"
"Yes, marse, yes, sir, here I is!" exclaimed that officer, in
trepidation, as he appeared in the doorway. "De windows and doors, sir,
is all fastened close and de maids are all in the dining-room as you
ordered, and----"
"Hang the maids and the doors and windows, too! Who the demon cares
about them? How dared you, you knave, permit your young mistress to
ride, unattended, in the face of such a storm, too! Why didn't you go
with her, sir?"
"'Deed, marse----"
"Don't ''deed marse' me you atrocious villain! Saddle a horse quickly,
inquire which road your mistress took and follow and attend her home
safely--after which I intend to break every bone in your skin, sirrah!
So----"
Again he was interrupted by a dazzling flash of lightning, accompanied
by a deafening roll of thunder, and followed by a flood of rain.
Wool stood appalled at the prospect of turning out in such a storm upon
such a fruitless errand.
"Oh, you may stare and roll up your eyes, but I mean it, you varlet! So
be off with you! Go! I don't care if you should be drowned in the rain,
or blown off the horse, or struck by lightning. I hope you may be, you
knave, and I shall be rid of one villain! Off, you varlet, or----" Old
Hurricane lifted a bronze statuette to hurl at Wool's delinquent head,
but that functionary dodged and ran out in time to escape a blow that
might have put a period to his mortal career.
But let no one suppose that honest Wool took the road that night! He
simply ran down-stairs and hid himself comfortably in the lowest
regions of the house, there to tarry until the storms, social and
atmospheric, should be over.
Meanwhile the night deepened, the storm raged without and Old Hurricane
raged within!
The lightning flashed, blaze upon blaze, with blinding glare! The
thunder broke, crash upon crash, with deafening roar! The wind
gathering all its force cannonaded the old walls as though it would
batter down the house! The rain fell in floods! In the midst of all the
Demon's Run, swollen to a torrent, was heard like the voice of a
"roaring lion, seeking whom he might devour!"
Old Hurricane strode up and down the floor, groaning, swearing,
threatening, and at every fresh blast of the storm without, breaking
forth into fury!
Mrs. Condiment sat crouched in a corner, praying fervently every time
the lightning blazed into the room, longing to go and join the men and
maids in the next apartment, yet fearful to stir from her seat lest she
should attract Old Hurricane's attention, and draw down upon herself
the more terrible thunder and lightning of his wrath. But to escape Old
Hurricane's violence was not in the power of mortal man or woman. Soon
her very stillness exasperated him and he broke forth upon her with:
"Mrs. Condiment, mum, I don't know how you can bear to sit there so
quietly and listen to this storm, knowing that the poor child is
exposed to it?"
"Major Warfield, would it do any good for me to jump up and trot up and
down the floor and go on as you do, even supposing I had the strength?"
inquired the meek old lady, thoroughly provoked at his injustice!
"I'd like to see you show a little more feeling! You are a perfect
barbarian! Oh, Cap! my darling, where are you now? Heavens! what a
blast was that! Enough to shake the house about our ears! I wish it
would! blamed if I don't!"
"Oh, Major! Major! don't say such awful things, nor make such awful
wishes!" said the appalled old lady--"you don't know what you might
bring down upon us!"
"No, nor care! If the old house should tumble in, it would bury under
its ruins a precious lot of good-for-nothing people, unfit to live!
Heavens! what a flash of lightning! Oh, Cap, Cap, my darling, where are
you in this storm? Mrs. Condiment, mum! if any harm comes to Capitola
this night, I'll have you indicted for manslaughter!"
"Major Warfield, if it is all on Miss Black's account that you are
raving and raging so, I think it is quite vain of you! for any young
woman caught out in a storm would know enough to get into shelter;
especially would Miss Black, who is a young lady of great courage and
presence of mind, as we know. She has surely gone into some house, to
remain until the storm is over," said Mrs. Condiment, soothingly.
This speech, so well intended, exasperated Old Hurricane more than all
the rest; stopping and striking his cane upon the floor, he roared
forth:
"Hang it, mum! hold your foolish old tongue! You know nothing about it!
Capitola is exposed to more serious dangers than the elements! Perils
of all sorts surround her! She should never, rain or shine, go out
alone! Oh, the little villain! the little wretch! the little demon! if
ever I get her safe in this house again, won't I lock her up and keep
her on bread and water until she learns to behave herself!"
Here again a blinding flash of lightning, a deafening peal of thunder,
a terrific blast of wind and flood of rain suddenly arrested his
speech.
"Oh, my Cap! my dear Cap! I needn't threaten you! I shall never have
the chance to be cruel to you again--never! You'll perish in this
terrible storm and then--and then my tough old heart will break! It
will--it will, Cap! But demmy, before it does, I'll break the necks of
every man and woman, in this house, old and young! Hear it, heaven and
earth, for I'll do it!"
All things must have an end. So, as the hours passed on, the storm
having spent all its fury, gradually grumbled itself into silence.
Old Hurricane also raged himself into a state of exhaustion so complete
that when the midnight hour struck he could only drop into a chair and
murmur:
"Twelve o'clock and no news of her yet!"
And then unwillingly he went to bed, attended by Mrs. Condiment and
Pitapat instead of Wool, who was supposed to be out in search of
Capitola, but who was, in fact, fast asleep on the floor of a dry
cellar.
Meanwhile, where did this midnight hour find Capitola?