A CHANGE OF PROGRAMME.
Mr. William Murray Bradshaw was in pretty intimate relations with Miss
Cynthia Badlam. It was well understood between them that it might be of
very great advantage to both of them if he should in due time become the
accepted lover of Myrtle Hazard. So long as he could be reasonably
secure against interference, he did not wish to hurry her in making her
decision. Two things he did wish to be sure of, if possible, before
asking her the great question;--first, that she would answer it in the
affirmative; and secondly, that certain contingencies, the turning of
which was not as yet absolutely capable of being predicted, should happen
as he expected. Cynthia had the power of furthering his wishes in many
direct and indirect ways, and he felt sure of her cooperation. She had
some reason to fear his enmity if she displeased him, and he had taken
good care to make her understand that her interests would be greatly
promoted by the success of the plan which he had formed, and which was
confided to her alone.
He kept the most careful eye on every possible source of disturbance to
this quietly maturing plan. He had no objection to have Gifted Hopkins
about Myrtle as much as she would endure to have him. The youthful bard
entertained her very innocently with his bursts of poetry, but she was in
no danger from a young person so intimately associated with the
yard-stick, the blunt scissors, and the brown-paper parcel. There was
Cyprian too, about whom he did not feel any very particular solicitude.
Myrtle had evidently found out that she was handsome and stylish and all
that, and it was not very likely she would take up with such a bashful,
humble, country youth as this. He could expect nothing beyond a possible
rectorate in the remote distance, with one of those little pony chapels
to preach in, which, if it were set up on a stout pole, would pass for a
good-sized martin-house. Cyprian might do to practise on, but there was
no danger of her looking at him in a serious way. As for that youth,
Clement Lindsay, if he had not taken himself off as he did, Murray
Bradshaw confessed to himself that he should have felt uneasy. He was
too good-looking, and too clever a young fellow to have knocking about
among fragile susceptibilities. But on reflection he saw there could be
no danger.
"All up with him,--poor diavolo! Can't understand it--such a little
sixpenny miss--pretty enough boiled parsnip blonde, if one likes that
sort of thing--pleases some of the old boys, apparently. Look out, Mr.
L. remember Susanna and the Elders. Good!
"Safe enough if something new doesn't turn up. Youngish. Sixteen's a
little early. Seventeen will do. Marry a girl while she's in the
gristle, and you can shape her bones for her. Splendid creature without
her trimmings. Wants training. Must learn to dance, and sing something
besides psalm-tunes."
Mr. Bradshaw began humming the hymn, "When I can read my title clear,"
adding some variations of his own. "That 's the solo for my prima
donna!"
In the mean time Myrtle seemed to be showing some new developments. One
would have said that the instincts of the coquette, or at least of the
city belle, were coming uppermost in her nature. Her little nervous
attack passed away, and she gained strength and beauty every day. She
was becoming conscious of her gifts of fascination, and seemed to please
herself with the homage of her rustic admirers. Why was it that no one
of them had the look and bearing of that young man she had seen but a
moment the other evening? To think that he should have taken up with
such a weakling as Susan Posey! She sighed, and not so much thought as
felt how kind it would have been in Heaven to have made her such a man.
But the image of the delicate blonde stood between her and all serious
thought of Clement Lindsay. She saw the wedding in the distance, and
very foolishly thought to herself that she could not and would not go to
it.
But Clement Lindsay was gone, and she must content herself with such
worshippers as the village afforded. Murray Bradshaw was surprised and
confounded at the easy way in which she received his compliments, and
played with his advances, after the fashion of the trained ball-room
belles, who know how to be almost caressing in manner, and yet are really
as far off from the deluded victim of their suavities as the topmost
statue of the Milan cathedral from the peasant that kneels on its floor.
He admired her all the more for this, and yet he saw that she would be a
harder prize to win than he had once thought. If he made up his mind
that he would have her, he must go armed with all implements, from the
red hackle to the harpoon.
The change which surprised Murray Bradshaw could not fail to be noticed
by all those about her. Miss Silence had long ago come to pantomime,
rolling up of eyes, clasping of hands, making of sad mouths, and the
rest,--but left her to her own way, as already the property of that great
firm of World & Co. which drives such sharp bargains for young souls with
the better angels. Cynthia studied her for her own purposes, but had
never gained her confidence. The Irish servant saw that some change had
come over her, and thought of the great ladies she had sometimes looked
upon in the old country. They all had a kind of superstitious feeling
about Myrtle's bracelet, of which she had told them the story, but which
Kitty half believed was put in the drawer by the fairies, who brought her
ribbons and partridge feathers, and other slight adornments with which
she contrived to set off her simple costume, so as to produce those
effects which an eye for color and cunning fingers can bring out of
almost nothing.
Gifted Hopkins was now in a sad, vacillating condition, between the two
great attractions to which he was exposed. Myrtle looked so immensely
handsome ere Sunday when he saw her going to church, not to meeting, for
she world not go, except when she knew Father Pemberton was going to be
the preacher, that the young poet was on the point of going down on his
knees to her, and telling her that his heart was hers and hers alone.
But he suddenly remembered that he had on his best trousers, and the idea
of carrying the marks of his devotion in the shape of two dusty
impressions on his most valued article of apparel turned the scale
against the demonstration. It happened the next morning, that Susan
Posey wore the most becoming ribbon she had displayed for a long time,
and Gifted was so taken with her pretty looks that he might very probably
have made the same speech to her that he had been on the point of making
to Myrtle the day before, but that he remembered her plighted affections,
and thought what he should have to say for himself when Clement Lindsay,
in a frenzy of rage and jealousy, stood before him, probably armed with
as many deadly instruments as a lawyer mentions by name in an indictment
for murder.
Cyprian Eveleth looked very differently on the new manifestations Myrtle
was making of her tastes and inclinations. He had always felt dazzled,
as well as attracted, by her; but now there was something in her
expression and manner which made him feel still more strongly that they
were intended for different spheres of life. He could not but own that
she was born for a brilliant destiny,--that no ball-room would throw a
light from its chandeliers too strong for her,--that no circle would be
too brilliant for her to illuminate by her presence. Love does not
thrive without hope, and Cyprian was beginning to see that it was idle in
him to think of folding these wide wings of Myrtle's so that they would
be shut up in any cage he could ever offer her. He began to doubt
whether, after all, he might not find a meeker and humbler nature better
adapted to his own. And so it happened that one evening after the three
girls, Olive, Myrtle, and Bathsheba, had been together at the Parsonage,
and Cyprian, availing himself of a brother's privilege, had joined them,
he found he had been talking most of the evening with the gentle girl
whose voice had grown so soft and sweet, during her long ministry in the
sick-chamber, that it seemed to him more like music than speech. It
would not be fair to say that Myrtle was piqued to see that Cyprian was
devoting himself to Bathsheba. Her ambition was already reaching beyond
her little village circle, and she had an inward sense that Cyprian found
a form of sympathy in the minister's simple-minded daughter which he
could not ask from a young woman of her own aspirations.
Such was the state of affairs when Master Byles Gridley was one morning
surprised by an early call from Myrtle. He had a volume of Walton's
Polyglot open before him, and was reading Job in the original, when she
entered.
"Why, bless me, is that my young friend Miss Myrtle Hazard?" he
exclaimed. "I might call you Keren-Happuch, which is Hebrew for Child of
Beauty, and not be very far out of the way, Job's youngest daughter, my
dear. And what brings my young friend out in such good season this
morning? Nothing going wrong up at our ancient mansion, The Poplars, I
trust?"
"I want to talk with you, dear Master Gridley," she answered. She looked
as if she did not know just how to begin.
"Anything that interests you, Myrtle, interests me. I think you have
some project in that young head of yours, my child. Let us have it, in
all its dimensions, length, breadth, and thickness. I think I can guess,
Myrtle, that we have a little plan of some kind or other. We don't visit
Papa Job quite so early as this without some special cause,--do we, Miss
Keren-Happuch?"
"I want to go to the city--to school," Myrtle said, with the directness
which belonged to her nature.
"That is precisely what I want you to do myself, Miss Myrtle Hazard. I
don't like to lose you from the village, but I think we must spare you
for a while."
"You're the best and dearest man that ever lived. What could have made
you think of such a thing for me, Mr. Gridley?"
"Because you are ignorant, my child,--partly I want to see you fitted to
take a look at the world without feeling like a little country miss. Has
your aunt Silence promised to bear your expenses while you are in the
city? It will cost a good deal of money."
"I have not said a word to her about it. I am sure I don't know what she
would say. But I have some money, Mr. Gridley."
She showed him a purse with gold, telling him how she came by it. "There
is some silver besides. Will it be enough?"
"No, no, my child, we must not meddle with that. Your aunt will let me
put it in the bank for you, I think, where it will be safe. But that
shall not make any difference. I have got a little money lying idle,
which you may just as well have the use of as not. You can pay it back
perhaps some time or other; if you did not, it would not make much
difference. I am pretty much alone in the world, and except a book now
and then--Aut liberos aut libros, as our valiant heretic has it,--you
ought to know a little Latin, Myrtle, but never mind--I have not much
occasion for money. You shall go to the best school that any of our
cities can offer, Myrtle, and you shall stay there until we agree that
you are fitted to come back to us an ornament to Oxbow Village, and to
larger places than this if you are called there. We have had some talk
about it, your aunt Silence and I, and it is all settled. Your aunt does
not feel very rich just now, or perhaps she would do more for you. She
has many pious and poor friends, and it keeps her funds low. Never mind,
my child, we will have it all arranged for you, and you shall begin the
year 1860 in Madam Delacoste's institution for young ladies. Too many
rich girls and fashionable ones there, I fear, but you must see some of
all kinds, and there are very good instructors in the school,--I know
one,--he was a college boy with me,--and you will find pleasant and good
companions there, so he tells me; only don't be in a hurry to choose your
friends, for the least desirable young persons are very apt to cluster
about a new-comer."
Myrtle was bewildered with the suddenness of the prospect thus held out
to her. It is a wonder that she did not bestow an embrace upon the
worthy old master. Perhaps she had too much tact. It is a pretty way
enough of telling one that he belongs to a past generation, but it does
tell him that not over-pleasing fact. Like the title of Emeritus
Professor, it is a tribute to be accepted, hardly to be longed for.
When the curtain rises again, it will show Miss Hazard in a new
character, and surrounded by a new world.