Admire my daughter! Sir, you're very good.
--_Tales of the Hall._
There followed such a round of teas on the hill and dinners at the
cottage; of picnics, walks, drives, and berry-scouts, that the days
gave up their ordinary rate of progress, and flew. June had long been
out of sight; and now July was ending, and August close at hand. Magnus
indeed closed his ears to the soft flutter, as the days winged by; but
not so Mrs. Kindred, and not so Cherry. The girl began to look forward
with absolute dismay to the drawing out from her daily life of this
gold-twisted silken thread. What should she do, when Magnus was away
again?
If I say that she was getting bound to him in deeper and finer trust
and love, with every new day's experience, it is no more than the
truth; and no more, I think, than he deserved. Love for the right sort
of woman puts a man at his best, and brings him out wonderfully. Count
the minutes? Ah, yes! two hearts at least did that. In just so many
days more Magnus must leave them all.
Then suppose Mr. Erskine--no, it could not be; and yet, after every
such decision, one always goes back to say the "suppose" over again.
"Magnus, I do wish you would have your talk with papa," Cherry ventured
one day.
"You recommended that at first--twice, if I recollect right," remarked
Cadet Kindred.
"I did nothing of the sort. But I should think you might have commended
it to yourself by this time."
"It is such fun to puzzle him."
"But it will not be fun to grieve him," Cherry said.
"Is he going to be grieved? Then it will all come upon your hands. You
know you can wheedle any bird off any bush at any time."
"'Wheedle' papa!" Cherry said with some energy. "Not I, I promise you."
"Well, I know you mean to keep all your promises to me," said Magnus.
"But come along, and see me throw myself at his feet. Then he can save
time, and give us his blessing together."
"No, I am not going," Cherry said, pulling her hand away and trying not
to laugh.
"You are worse than Lord Ullin's daughter," said Magnus. "She plunged
into all the danger there was around. Chérie, will you send me a letter
every single day?"
"Oh, do not talk about letters yet!" Cherry said, in such a pitiful
tone that Magnus forgot all about Mr. Erskine, and gave himself up to
the task of comforting her. And it was the father himself who at last,
unawares, brought on the talk.
"Only twenty days left," he said one morning, when Magnus came into his
study and sat down, with an absent-minded air.
"Nineteen, sir."
"Then you settle down to hard work again."
"For two years, sir."
"And then?"
"Then I take my diploma and a three-months' leave, and come back here."
"Three months--till October."
"Yes, sir."
"That is better than nothing," said Mr. Erskine; "but we shall all
think it very short."
"I cannot stay until quite October," said Magnus, "but towards that."
"And then?"
"Then I take Cherry and go to my post."
But now Mr. Erskine sat straight up, grasping the arm of his chair.
"Take Cherry!" he repeated. "My baby! It is _Cherry_ you want to take
to San Carlos?"
"It may not be San Carlos, sir. Of course, I must take her wherever I
go."
"Well, you need not get up before gunfire to bone assurance," said
Mr. Erskine. "My Cherry! And what do you suppose she will say to this
brilliant plan for her happiness?"
"I do not think she much cares where we go, sir," Magnus answered, with
easy confidence.
It was an indescribable pang that shot through the father's heart. His
one treasure, his pearl of all the world, already did not "much care"
where she went, so long as she could be with this youngster--put her
hand in his, and go!
"It may happen that I shall care," he said huskily. "What makes you
think I will give her up to go anywhere?"
"But you can go, too, you know, sir," Cadet Kindred answered, with that
same calm tone which ignores the hard and cuts through the impossible.
"We have talked about it a great deal."
"It strikes me that a little of the talking should have come to me."
"Yes, sir; but then you are so seldom alone--always reading or
something on hand--it was hard to find a chance. And then you were
sick. And I thought you must see for yourself. And then, if you
didn't, it was such fun to puzzle you," Magnus said honestly.
"So seldom alone," Mr. Erskine repeated rather bitterly. "I suppose it
will be often enough in the future. No, do not say another word to me
now. Take yourself off, young man, and get out of my sight, and give me
a chance to draw my breath. My Cherry!"
It was perhaps just as well for everybody that the two guests were
still there, and the fun and frolic at high-water mark; the best
intentions thereto, or even the justest cause, could not make anybody
look grave or stiff or anxious. Therefore Mr. Erskine had time to study
up his hard question unnoticed.
"Question," indeed, it hardly was. Mr. Erskine knew, without thinking,
that he loved Magnus Kindred like his own son; and it took very little
awakened observation to show him that, on Cherry's part, the old
childish affection had passed into the deepest and strongest that a
woman can know. Reserved and self-contained as she always was, her
father could see a hundred little tokens which he marvelled he had
never noticed before. He watched Magnus, too, with very keen-set eyes,
studied him, weighed him in all sorts of scales, and, on the whole,
was well content. Just about as much of a boy as ever, only more of
a man; gay, saucy, absurd, and sensible; but through it all now, in
whatever touched Cherry, there was an indescribable tone of reverence
which became him well, as it does any man who has won for himself the
priceless trust of a true woman's love. His own love and devotion were
patent enough. Magnus had certainly "taken it hard," as people say. The
father noted it well, and judged it all of a quality that would wear.
Once making up his mind to the situation, it was amusing enough; and
the two elders of the party had many a quiet laugh at the skill with
which Messrs. Twinkle and Rig were headed off, and never allowed to
improve their acquaintance with Cherry. It was always somebody else
with whom they were fated to walk, and to whom they might make pretty
speeches; and with all a man's recklessness about possible damage to
other hearts, and lest his tactics should be found out, Magnus hunted
up other girls--old acquaintances of the neighbourhood--to share the
burden which at first Violet and Rose had borne alone.
"But, Magnus!" Mrs. Kindred protested one day, "you go on like crazy
boys, you three. Girls about here aren't used to young fellows who say
everything they do not mean. My dear, I fear you are sowing mischief.
Jenny Mott went home last night with her head more than half turned."
"Easy job for Rig to finish, then," said Magnus. "Never mind, mammy;
keep up your spirits. We're not so unlike other boys as you seem to
think. It _is_ getting to be rather serious with Twinkle and Viola."
"Now, my dear!" Mrs. Kindred said, with her hand on his arm; "now,
Magnus! you must not put any nonsense into that child's head!"
"Couldn't if I would," said Magnus; "not an inch of room. You couldn't
get a grain in sideways after Twinkle's been talking to her. He's a
right good fellow, mammy; don't drink, don't smoke, don't flirt--much;
and if his light isn't of the very biggest, it's always there, which is
better. She might do worse."
"But, Magnus, Violet is hardly grown up."
"Why don't you tell Twinkle so, and ask him to wait?" said Magnus, with
a very grave face. But then he laughed.
"Oh, mammy!" he said, "when cadets are about, it's 'all luggage at the
risk of the owners.' I _had_ picked out somebody else for Vio, if only
he's not gone before she gets there. What a thing it is to have me well
settled in life before your anxieties over the girls come on!" And
then Magnus kissed her, and set his face towards the other house.
"But Magnus!" said Mrs. Kindred, calling him back, "you have not told
me what Mr. Erskine says. Do you know yourself? He knits his brows so
sometimes, when he is looking at you, that I never dare ask him. Is he
willing, do you think?"
"He will be, before I get through with him," said Magnus confidently,
and he went whistling up the hill, as though that small task were done
to his hand.