Lois drew forward a young creature, whose dark head did not fully uplift.
'Christian,' she said, 'this is your cousin Rhoda.'
He blurted out 'Cousin!' in astonishment. Two faces stiffened; the girl's
eyes declined.
'My niece,' said Lois briefly, 'and so cousin by adoption.'
Giles kicked his heel, so he guarded his tongue duly.
Considerate of embarrassing the girl with open observation, he took note
discreetly how kin was just legible on the two faces. The eyes of both
were set overdeep for womankind; they were alike in the moulding of the
bones; but the face of Rhoda gave promise of a richer beauty than could
ever have been the portion of Lois. For a minute it bloomed in a vivid
blush, for their eyes met as she, too, by stealth was observing him for
his great height and breadth and alien complexion.
When afterwards his mother said, 'You know whose child she is?' he
answered, 'Yes.'
'Christian, I thank God for my good man.'
Her sense he could not adjust till long afterwards, when a fuller account
of Rhoda's past was given to him. Now Giles told but little.
'No, she had never set eyes on her before. I? Oh yes, I had--the pretty
little piece! But when I bring her in, and have said no more than one
cough, the wife goes clean past me, and has the girl in her arms, and
calls her by her sister's name, and sobs hard and dry like a man. It
turned me silly and rotten, it did. I knew for a minute she didn't fairly
know it was not somehow her sister; no older than Rhoda she was, poor
thing, when she last stood under our roof; and their last parting had not
been over tender. Well, I had messed the business--I knew I should,--for
there was the wife going on, saying things, and there was Rhoda getting
scared and white, and putting out a hand to me. And then I go one worse,
for I get hold of her, and say, "She takes you for your mother, child,"
that the wife may get the hang of it; and at that down she sits sudden,
all of a shake. But the poor wench says, "My _mother_!" for--well, I
suppose I had lied sometime--she thought she was the truly begotten
orphan of an estranged brother. Nothing would come handy but the
truth--the wife being there; so I even told it all. Yes, I did, though it
did seem cruel hard for a young wench to have that story from a beard.
But it worked well; for when the poor child knew not how to bestow her
eyes, nor to bear the red of shame, up stands the wife to her, just woman
by woman, and looks fierce at me, and to her Rhoda closes all a-quiver,
and in a moment the wife has kissed her, blight and all, and Rhoda is
crying enough for both. That was over an hour before you came in on us,
when out jumped "cousin" and "niece" to clinch the business. I knew she
would never go back on them. To think that all these years--well--well.'
'Well, Dad--all these years?' said Christian, incited by Lois's words to
be curious of Giles's conduct; for he was a comrade of easy imperfection,
not insistent of the highest rectitudes, nor often a consistent exemplar
of Lois's strict precepts. Giles drew in.
'A grape has grown from a thorn, that's all,' he said.
'But how came you----'
'And a pumpkin has overgrown too. Here--clear out, you've left a moderate
body no room to turn.'
So Christian understood he was to be excluded from full confidence. Loyal
every inch of him, he respected Giles's reserve and never questioned
Rhoda herself. He did but listen.
Clear, colourless years, regulated under convent control, was all the
past she knew; serene, not unhappy, till the lot of a portionless orphan
lay provided for her in a sordid marriage, that her young instinct knew
to be prostitution, though the Church and the world sanctioned it as a
holy estate. To her this blessed transplantation into a very home gave a
new, warm atmosphere that kindled fresh life. The blanch bud expanded and
glowed, fresh, dewy, excellent as the bloom of her name. And very sweet
incense her shy gratitude distilled.
It was to Giles she gave her best affection, to Lois most reverence and
devotion. But to Christian went a subtle tribute, spontaneous even in an
innocent convent-girl, to an admirable make of manhood; some quick
shivers of relief that a certain widower with yellow teeth did not
possess her. And in Christian thrilled an equivalent response; though he
knew not how Rhoda's maiden charm, her winning grace, her shadow even,
her passing breath, evoked unaware, with a keen, blissful sting at heart,
vivid remembrance of the sea-witch Diadyomene.
'She likes the old hunks best of the lot,' said Giles with complaisance.
'My bright little bird! There's never a one of you young fellows stands
to cut me out.'
He cocked an eye at Christian.
'Now Philip comes along, and will have her for seeing the caught
frigate-bird. And off she is flying, when back she skims and will have me
too. Oh! but he looked less than sweet, and he's a fine figure too for a
maid's eye, and a lad of taste--he is.'
'He! May be, for his fancies are ever on the brew, hot or cold,' said
Christian in scorn.
'She's a rare pretty wench, and a good,' said Giles, with a meditative
eye.
'She is: too rare and good for any of Philip's make; an even blend of
conceit and laziness is he.'
'That's so, that's so,' returned Giles coolly to this heat, 'but I don't
say he would make a bad pair for just so much as the boundary walk.'
'How!' said Christian 'but she will walk with me--she's my cousin.'
'Have you asked her?'
'No.'
'Well, I think she's worth an asking. She's shy, and she's nice, and
she's got a spirit too, and more than one, I wager, won't be backward.
Rhoda! Rhoda! why, what's this grave face you are bringing us, my
pretty?'
The girl's eyes addressed Christian's with childlike candour and wonder.
'Why is it,' she said, 'that the mother of that tall Philip doubles her
thumb when you pass by?'
He flushed with knit brows, but laughed and jested: 'I guess because she
does not like the colour of my hair.' But Rhoda had noted a pause, and a
quick turn of the eye upon Giles.
'When the boundary is walked, Rhoda, will you pair with me?'
'Oh!' she said, 'Philip wanted to bespeak me, and I said him no, till my
uncle should have had the refusal of me first.'
She curtsied before the old man in bright solicitation.
'Ah! my maid, here's a lame leg that can't manage the steep. You must
take my proxy, Christian here.'
'But that's another matter,' she said; 'I doubt if I be free.'
Christian's face clouded, but he had no notion of pressing her to
exchange obligation for inclination. When he was away, Rhoda asked,
troubled and timid:
'I have vexed him. Is it for this? or that I was curious----'
'About that doubled thumb? Not that. He'll clear that to you himself if I
know him. Well, then, I will, to spare it him.'
He set forth Christian's position and the ordeal not yet quite suspended.
Rhoda went straight after Christian. She presented both hands to him.
With a glowing cheek and brave eyes, 'I will walk with you!' she said.
'I am proud, cousin! But so? What of Philip?'
With a saucy sparkle she said, 'Do not flounces become a girl's wear,
then? You shall see. Or do you expect a broken head of him?'
There was more of childish mischief than of coquetry in her face.
'Stay, Rhoda, I have to tell you something.'
'No need--no need. Can you think I have not heard?' and she left him to
slow enlightenment.
Thereafter brotherly solicitude and responsibility developed in
Christian, and his liking for the bright young creature grew warm, in
natural degree to match the shy preference and grateful glow that
answered for her appreciation.
Soon, so soon, his jealousy, his honest, blameless jealousy, came to be
piercingly sweet to the girl's heart. How else, when day by day Giles
instructed her of his worth with tales of his champion feats, and of all
his boyhood, its pranks and temerities, its promise by tender honour and
fortitude of the finest quality of man; when her own observation told her
that in the ranks of youth he was peerless, in strength, in outward
fashion, in character, in conduct; generous, gentle, upright; of a
sensitive conscience that urged extremes of pride and humility; and
brave. And to her this worshipful youth condescended; nay, but it was
even with deference that he honoured her and attended. One touch of
saintliness that had rarefied him was dispelled to her naughty content.
'Rhoda, my child,' said Lois, 'where is the Book? Bring it.' And away the
girl went.
Lois had found that the Bible, formerly left mostly to her sole use, had,
since Rhoda's coming, made unseen departures and returns. Well pleased
with the girl's recluse piety, she was awhile patient of its want.
'Do you leave the Book outside, child? When it is out of hand, you should
lay it back here.'
'It was in the linhay,' said Rhoda, 'and not out of hand. And do you
think 'tis I who take it? 'Tis Christian.'
'Christian!' said Lois, in a voice of such surprise that Rhoda was
disillusioned. 'Then do you never study the Book alone?'
'No,' confessed Rhoda, 'I but listen to your reading and the Church's.'
Lois was disquieted. She had ever secretly deplored the infirm masculine
constitution of Giles and Christian, who accepted from her a spiritual
ration with never a sign of genuine, eager hunger of soul. Yet this
departure was little to her liking. Though fain would she have recognised
the working of the Spirit, she dreaded rather that this was no healthy
symptom in Christian's raw development. A cruel stroke to her was this
second reserve of independence, invading the fastest hold of a mother's
influence. Back came the earlier conviction that her boy's withdrawal
from her must be for wrong-going, and the strain of watchful scrutiny
and prayer returned. It had slackened when her God had shown such favour
as to take out of her soul that iron that for years had corroded there,
that she had vainly striven to expel.
She approached Christian with a diffidence that was painful to him to
perceive; she recommended counsel in any difficulty--not her own, she
said sincerely, though with a touch of bitterness. He was embarrassed by
her close, tender surveillance.
'I have already taken counsel,' he admitted, 'and I think I have got
understanding--at least I have got certain information by heart.'
'Of his Reverence?'
'Yes.'
'Christian, you are not of the doubters?'
'No, mother, of the ignorant.'
Her piercing eyes examined his.
'Who has told you so? You did not know it of yourself. What evil
communication corrupts you?'
There was no answer but the sufficient one of the boy's conscious face.
There was that in the fire of it that inspired Lois to groan in her
heart: 'My boy has met a daughter of perdition.'
She did not miss her Bible again.
Lois's divination of the truth preceded Christian's, though again into
the presence of Diadyomene had he made his way. There he went
high-hearted on a service that sanctioned all risks--the recovery to the
fair witch of her lost soul, fair too he was sure.
When he summoned her to baptism with the first breath, she laughed him
off. No, no, she would have none of it. Let him tell her first that of
the nature of a secret, as he said he would some day. And Christian,
seeing it was indeed germane, delivered the story of the child cut off
unbaptized, to the mother's undying remorse. She rewarded him.
'And she would have cared for the little dead body to kiss! Ah, poor
mother!' she said softly and regretfully, so that his eyes grew moist.
'Diadyomene, if I die of the sea, would you be so far pitiful as to
render to her my body again?'
'No,' she mocked; 'I myself would keep it. Did I not promise as much at
the first?' Then she derided the poor limitation that would die of the
sea through foolish preference of a soul.
He took up his mission with all his best powers well ordered; but to no
purpose he persisted--she fenced too well for him. She began by denying
any value to her soul; before they ended she challenged him to prove his
own existence; and, to his amazement, he found that he could not against
her, and rude demonstration he did not dare.
He brought off with unsuccess, great joy by her least favour, sharp
stings by her least resentment, yet no suspicion that the sea-witch had
him in the toils.
Giles mending Rhoda's shoes clacked fondly: 'A pretty little foot she
has. Such a pit-a-pat little pair I never did see.'
Away to sacred white sands flew Christian's thoughts: he wondered if
slender footmarks lay there, and which way set. A little folly came into
his mind: to plant his bare feet over those dints pace by pace--delicate
near paces; for the soles of his feet to walk intimate with the mould of
hers. The little folly in his mind extended, set also his palm to the
sand, his cheek, his brow. He came to himself from foot to face tingling,
and amazed.
'A sweet, pretty wench!' was Giles's refrain. 'Eh?'
Christian assented.
'One more to my taste does not tread shoe-leather. Eh?'
With a singular expression Christian gave a 'No' of sufficient emphasis.
He looked at Rhoda and grew red.
Rhoda and Christian went amidst the fig-tree and trained it up to the
eaves. Lois and Giles looked on from the porch; when they spoke, it was
low as the rustle of the boughs. 'Young Adam and Eve' slid to Christian's
ears. He looked at Giles; saw the fond, complacent smile and the shrewd
eye; saw his mother's face, grave, concerned, tender; glanced down at
Rhoda, and met her shy, happy eyes. He understood, and like lightning
shot the revelation that with body and soul he loved Diadyomene.