A LOVERS' QUARREL.
Lady Phipps met her guest in the hall bright, cheerful, and full of
hospitable gladness. Elizabeth Parris followed her, but hung back a
little, shy of the strange lady, who moved like a princess, and smiled
so strangely as she uttered the common-places expected of a courteous
guest. Lady Phipps went chatting and smiling up the staircase a little
in advance of her visitor, for she would not allow a servant to attend
her to the spacious guest chamber. Lovel and Elizabeth stayed below,
watching the two ladies as they mounted the stairs together. When
Elizabeth turned her eyes on Lovel, there was something in his face that
troubled her.
"Isn't she a noble-looking woman?" he asked, in an eager undertone.
"Perhaps--no, indeed I don't think her in the least beautiful," answered
the spoiled child, with a pout of the red lips and a pretty toss of the
head; "besides--"
"Why, Elizabeth, you are in a pet about something--I don't like that way
of speaking about my friends."
"You never saw her but once in your life!" said Elizabeth, with a flush
of the whole face, "still you look, you--I declare one would think there
was not another person in the wide world, from the way you look after
her."
"Ah, do I--you see it, I really cannot keep my eyes from her face."
"At any rate it is not a handsome face!" cried Elizabeth, flushing more
and more redly.
"You have never seen her when she was talking, when she was really
pleased--then her face changes so brightly--so--so--"
"I don't want to hear her talk--I don't care whether she is pleased or
not--I only know this--she is not in the least beautiful, and is old
enough to be your mother--there!"
"Old enough to be my mother, my mother!" A sudden thrill shot through
the youth at the word mother. It sounded so strangely sweet. Had
Elizabeth searched the language through, she could not have found two
syllables so likely to form a golden link between him and the woman they
were talking of.
"Yes, I say it again, she is not pretty, and she's old enough to be your
mother--yet you must let the carriage come home with nothing but a trunk
in it, while you and the lady take a long, long walk together on the
shore, after you had promised to ride with me, too."
"Did I promise? forgive me, Bessie; I quite forgot it."
"Forgot it--while I was waiting and watching with my habit on, and the
horses stamping down the gravel in front of the house," cried the
aggrieved maiden, and a few spirited tears flashed up to her eyes, and
trembled there like dew in a periwinkle. "You may believe it, I was
quite ashamed to let the groom see how often I ran out into the porch to
look up and down the road. I declare I've almost worn my riding-skirt
threadbare with my whip, trying to make the fellows think I only came
out to dust my habit."
"Indeed, I'm very sorry!"
"And you all the time promenading along the beach with a strange lady,
talking, smiling--oh, I wish I were at home again. It was very cruel of
you teasing the governor to consent to our marriage one of these days,
if you intended to neglect me in this way."
The youth, whose endowment of patience was by no means marvellous, began
to be a little restive under all these reproaches; they disturbed the
pleasurable emotions which had predominated with him all the morning.
Worse, they impaired the angelic perfection with which his imagination
had invested the young girl; the contrast between her childish petulance
and the sweet dignity of the woman forced itself upon him. To be
lectured and reproached by a mere child so directly after the
companionship and sympathy of that lady, struck him with a sense of
humiliation. He looked at the young girl gravely till the tears swelled
in her eyes, then turned away, angry and hurt.
Lovers' quarrels are mere April showers, giving life to a thousand wild
blossoms of the affection when both are in fault, and both angry; but
when they end in silence and constraint, the November rain has not a
more chilling influence.
While these impulsive young creatures were so busy planting their first
thorns, Barbara Stafford had entered her chamber--a large, airy room,
with four windows, all draped with filmy muslin, and a large
tent-bedstead, shrouded in white till it looked like a snow-drift.
When the carriage first started to bring Barbara Stafford, Elizabeth had
been, like the whole household, eager to honor a guest whom the governor
had invited. She had gathered up all the unoccupied vases, and filled
them with flowers; they blushed upon the toilet and the chest of
drawers, and took the wind as it swept over the broad window-seats,
filling the room with brightness and fragrance.
In order to indulge her own wild caprices, she had gathered all the
blush-roses in bloom, and looped them among the snow of the curtains. It
was strange; but while she stood, angry and flushed, at the foot of the
stairs, longing to run up and destroy her own beautiful work, Barbara
grew faint as death upon the threshold of the chamber. She turned an
imploring look on Lady Phipps, and said--"Oh, take me away--I entreat
you, take me to some other room."
"What, the flowers--the roses?" said Lady Phipps, surprised; "I will
have them removed. How pale you are! how your hands quiver! I would not
have believed that the scent of a few flowers could make one so ill."
Barbara was not a woman to give way to caprices of the nerves; she sat
down in the great easy-chair, draped with white dimity, to which Lady
Phipps led her, swept a hand across her forehead once or twice, and
lifting her pale face, looked upward at a portrait of Governor Phipps,
which hung in a massive frame upon the wall. This was the first object
that had met her eyes on entering the room. The portrait had been taken
years before, and was that of a young man, spirited and full of power.
There was a smile upon the mouth, a consciousness of strength in the
glance, that bespoke innate greatness.
When Barbara lifted her face to the picture, it was hard and pale; the
rigidity of a stern resolution locked it like a vice; but as she gazed,
the snow melted from her features. The lips began to tremble, the white
lids drooped quivering over the eyes, and she shivered all over.
"No, no! do not remove the flowers," she said gently to Lady Phipps, who
had taken a vase from the toilet. "I am better now. The walk was too
much for me. Indeed, I have been subject to these turns ever since that
terrible day. Do not blame the roses for my weakness; you see how much
better I am."
She sat up in the easy-chair and looked around, evidently with great
effort, but striving to smile and to subdue her weakness in every way.
"I am glad you are better," said Lady Phipps, kindly bending over the
chair, at which Barbara shrunk back like one who fears some hurt, "and
glad also that the poor flowers can remain as Elizabeth left them; she
took such pains to gather and arrange them, dear child."
Barbara lifted her head suddenly, and grasped the arm of her chair.
"Dear child--your daughter, madam?"
"No. I am childless--we have always been childless."
Barbara sunk back into the chair again.
"I spoke," continued Lady Phipps, smiling, "of Elizabeth Parris, the
daughter of a very dear friend. She was in the hall as you entered. A
charming bit of mischief, who has turned the head of our young
secretary. We shall have some ado to persuade Samuel Parris into a
consent to the engagement. But he must give way at last--dear old soul:
he is sure to yield when Sir William takes a thing earnestly in hand. I
remember, he made all sorts of objections to officiating when we were
married."
"Then this old man--this Samuel Parris performed that ceremony?"
"Yes. Sir William would have no other minister. They were old friends.
Indeed, Mr. Parris was a sort of benefactor to my husband when he was a
poor boy."
"And they have no secrets from each other--these two men?"
Lady Phipps exhibited a little astonishment at this abrupt question, but
after a moment she answered, with a smile:
"Nay, that I cannot tell. My husband loves the old man. Indeed, with the
exception perhaps of Norman Lovel, I know hardly any one to whom he is
so much attached; but as for secrets, I fancy Sir William shares them
with no one."
"Then he is greatly attached to this youth?"
"Indeed he is, or nothing would have induced him to interfere about this
engagement. Elizabeth is like our own daughter, and as for Lovel--but
you have seen him."
"Yes: I can readily understand your affection for him," answered
Barbara, with a little weariness in her manner.
Lady Phipps, who seldom dwelt on any subject long, arranged the toilet
ornaments over again, and left the room, advising her visitor to lie
down and rest a little after her long walk.
Did Barbara Stafford rest? Could she rest? Why had she come to that
house? Not by her own wish; a sort of fatality had dragged her there.
The evident desire of young Lovel might have influenced her somewhat,
little as the thing seemed possible. She went there as a bird flutters
into the open jaws of a serpent, and remained, restless, unhappy, and
watchful, without the wish or power to change.
The kindness of Lady Phipps oppressed her terribly; she rather preferred
the reserve, and almost evident dislike of Elizabeth Parris. Like most
persons who cannot be entirely frank, she shrunk as much from affection
as curiosity.
Lady Phipps, with all her warm-heartedness, was a proud woman, and felt
the hidden repulsion with which her hospitality was met, without really
understanding it. Yet, strange to say, this only increased her desire to
win the confidence of her guest.
From the very moment she first saw the foreign lady sitting in the
sunshine by the old stone farm-house, this desire had risen in her
heart, and grew upon her like a fascination.
She would have given any thing for one down-right, cordial beam of
affection from those downcast eyes, which seemed forever to look beyond,
or glance aside from her face in the most friendly moments.
Yet a third party would have seen nothing strange in this visit. The
etiquette of life went on quietly and with high-bred elegance. Nothing
but soft words and gentle courtesies passed from morning till night, yet
there was not a happy, or even contented, heart in the house.
But the most remarkable change fell upon young Lovel. He became dreamy,
almost sad, the brilliancy of his youth seemed to have withered up
suddenly. Instead of the dashing gayety, for which he was so remarkable,
a pleasant sadness crept over him; he smiled now where he had laughed
before. He forgot to perpetuate or renew the little quarrel which had
sprung up between himself and Elizabeth on the first day of Barbara
Stafford's visit, and though the poor girl went about the house with
heavy eyes and flushed cheeks all that day, he did not seem conscious of
it. Alas for the woman who is doomed to bring such discord into a
household where love has been almost perfect before!
Elizabeth was a bright, single-hearted young creature, proud, impulsive,
and full of generous qualities. Before night-fall that evening she had
repented of her petulance, and pined for a reconciliation with her young
lover; still he did not seek her, did not even seem to know that she was
suffering, but went away into the garden by himself, and walked moodily
up and down the gravel walks.
Elizabeth had grown very humble by this time. Quarrels may be pleasant
in flirtations, but where real love is, they trouble a good heart as sin
would torment an angel. After a little struggle, in which pride leaped
in fire to her cheeks, while regret filled her eyes with tears, and set
her sweet lips trembling like rosebuds in a fall of summer rain, she
went down the walk, holding out her pretty hand, like a naughty child,
seized with sudden awkwardness, anxious to confess herself in the wrong,
but not knowing how to begin.
"Norman," she said, and the little hand fell softly upon his arm,
"Norman, I am so sorry!"
The young man started and looked up, as if he had been half asleep till
then.
"Sorry, Elizabeth; and for what?"
He spoke naturally, and looked surprised. Anger, even rage, would have
been far less cruel than this forgetfulness of words that had wrung her
heart to the core. She could not speak, but drew her hand back, looking
at him with those large blue eyes slowly filling with anguish.
That look must have aroused him had it really fixed his glance; but on
the instant, Barbara Stafford came into the garden alone. A white scarf
was wound over her head, in double folds, and there was a look in her
face, as she turned it with a bend towards the sunset, which reminded
the youth of the features of Beatrice Cenci, which he had once seen and
almost wept before, in Rome. He forgot the young girl who hovered like a
wounded bird in his path, and went towards the woman.
Elizabeth followed him with her eyes; she saw the smile--that luminous,
eloquent smile, with which Barbara greeted the youth: a smile that no
human being ever saw to question the woman's beauty afterwards. The
tears trembling in her eyes, fired up like diamonds. She dashed them
upon the air with a sweep of her hand, and turned away humbled, haughty,
and almost heart-broken.
It will be a long time, Norman Lovel, before that girl asks pardon of
you again; she is almost ready to scoff at herself for loving you; her
foot presses the tessellated floor of that hall with the tread of a
queen.
She looked forth from the window of her chamber, and saw them walking
together; Norman, her lover, and the strange lady. He was evidently
listening to her as she conversed, for his face was turned upon her with
a look of absorbing attention, and it brightened eloquently, though he
did not smile--the talk seemed too earnest and serious for that. She
could not remember the time when he had looked at _her_ with such
devotion. Poor child! her heart was sick with jealousy--and of whom?
They walked together till the new moon rose, and hung like a golden
sickle over the trees; then they moved quietly towards the house, and
Elizabeth heard the lady retreat to her own room, while Lovel wandered
off into the grounds, without once glancing up at the window where she
stood. How bitterly she began to hate the woman who, without youth or a
tithe of her own rare beauty, had taken possession of a heart which had
been so completely hers.