"Tu vas faire un beau rève,
Et t'enivrer d'un plaisir dangereux.
Sur ton chemin l'étoile qui se leve
Longtemps encore éblouira les yeux!"
DE MUSSET.
A fortnight passed. The first excursion in the _Eulalie_ had been
followed by others of a similar kind, and Errington's acquaintance with
the Güldmars was fast ripening into a pleasant intimacy. It had grown
customary for the young men to spend that part of the day which, in
spite of persistent sunshine, they still called evening, in the
comfortable, quaint parlor of the old farmhouse,--looking at the view
through the rose-wreathed windows,--listening to the fantastic legends
of Norway as told by Olaf Güldmar,--or watching Thelma's picturesque
figure, as she sat pensively apart in her shadowed corner spinning. They
had fraternized with Sigurd too--that is, as far as he would permit
them--for the unhappy dwarf was uncertain of temper, and if at one hour
he were docile and yielding as a child, the next he would be found
excited and furious at some imaginary slight that he fancied had been
inflicted upon him. Sometimes, if good-humored, he would talk almost
rationally,--only allowing his fancy to play with poetical ideas
concerning the sea, the flowers, or the sunlight,--but he was far more
often sullen and silent. He would draw a low chair to Thelma's side, and
sit there with half-closed eyes and compressed lips, and none could tell
whether he listened to the conversation around him, or was utterly
indifferent to it. He had taken a notable fancy to Lorimer, but he
avoided Errington in the most marked and persistent manner. The latter
did his best to overcome this unreasonable dislike, but his efforts were
useless,--and deciding in his own mind that it was best to humor
Sigurd's vagaries, he soon let him alone, and devoted his attention more
entirely to Thelma.
One evening, after supper at the farmhouse, Lorimer, who for some time
had been watching Philip and Thelma conversing together in low tones
near the open window, rose from his seat quietly, without disturbing the
hilarity of the _bonde_, who was in the middle of a rollicking
sea-story, told for Macfarlane's entertainment,--and slipped out into
the garden, where he strolled along rather absently till he found
himself in the little close thicket of pines,--the very same spot where
he and Philip had stood on the first day of their visit thither. He
threw himself down on the soft emerald moss and lit a cigar, sighing
rather drearily as he did so.
"Upon my life," he mused, with a half-smile, "I am very nearly being a
hero,--a regular stage-martyr,--the noble creature of the piece! By
Jove, I wish I were a soldier! I'm certain I could stand the enemy's
fire better than this! Self-denial? Well, no wonder the preachers make
such a fuss about it, It's a tough, uncomfortable duty. But am I
self-denying? Not a bit of it! Look here, George Lorimer"--here he
tapped himself very vigorously on his broad chest--"don't you imagine
yourself to be either virtuous or magnanimous! If you were anything of a
man at all you would never let your feelings get the better of you,--you
would be sublimely indifferent, stoically calm,--and, as it is,--you
know what a sneaking, hang-dog state of envy you were in just now when
you came out of that room! Aren't you ashamed of yourself,--rascal?"
The inner self he thus addressed was most probably abashed by this
adjuration, for his countenance cleared a little, as though he had
received an apology from his own conscience. He puffed lazily at his
cigar, and felt somewhat soothed. Light steps below him attracted his
attention, and, looking down from the little knoll on which he lay, he
saw Thelma and Philip pass. They were walking slowly along a little
winding path that led to the orchard, which was situated at some little
distance from the house. The girl's head was bent, and Philip was
talking to her with evident eagerness. Lorimer looked after them
earnestly, and his honest eyes were full of trouble.
"God bless them both!" he murmured half aloud. "There's no harm in
saying that, any how! Dear old Phil! I wonder whether--"
What he would have said was uncertain, for at that moment he was
considerably startled by the sight of a meagre, pale face peering
through the parted pine boughs,--a face in which two wild eyes shone
with a blue-green glitter, like that of newly sharpened steel.
"Hello, Sigurd!" said Lorimer good-naturedly, as he recognized his
visitor. "What are you up to? Going to climb a tree?"
Sigurd pushed aside the branches cautiously and approached. He sat down
by Lorimer, and, taking his hand, kissed it deferentially.
"I followed you. I saw you go away to grieve alone. I came to grieve
also!" he said with a patient gentleness.
Lorimer laughed languidly. "By Jove, Sigurd, you're too clever for your
age! Think I came away to grieve, eh? Not so, my boy--came away to
smoke! There's a come-down for you! I never grieve--don't know how to do
it. What _is_ grief?"
"To love!" answered Sigurd promptly. "To see a beautiful elf with golden
wings come fluttering, fluttering gently down from the sky,--you open
your arms to catch her--so! . . . and just as you think you have her, she
leans only a little bit on one side, and falls, not into your
heart--no!--into the heart of some one else! That is grief, because,
when she has gone, no more elves come down from the sky,--for you, at
any rate,--good things may come for others,--but for _you_ the heavens
are empty!"
Lorimer was silent, looking at the speaker curiously.
"How do you get all this nonsense into your head, eh?" he inquired
kindly.
"I do not know," replied Sigurd with a sigh. "It comes! But, tell
me,"--and he smiled wistfully--"it is true, dear friend--good friend--it
is all true, is it not? For you the heavens are empty? You know it!"
Lorimer flushed hotly, and then grew strangely pale. After a pause, he
said in his usual indolent way--
"Look here, Sigurd; you're romantic! I'm not. I know nothing about elves
or empty heavens. I'm all right! Don't you bother yourself about me."
The dwarf studied his face attentively, and a smile of almost fiendish
cunning suddenly illumined his thin features. He laid his weak-looking
white hand on the young man's arm and said in a lower tone--
"I will tell you what to do. Kill him!"
The last two words were uttered with such intensity of meaning that
Lorimer positively recoiled from the accents, and the terrible look
which accompanied them.
"I say, Sigurd, this won't do," he remonstrated gravely. "You mustn't
talk about killing, you know! It's not good for you. People don't kill
each other nowadays so easily as you seem to think. It can't be done,
Sigurd! Nobody wants to do it."
"It _can_ be done!" reiterated the dwarf imperatively. "It _must_ be
done, and either you or I will do it! He shall not rob us,--he shall not
steal the treasure of the golden midnight. He shall not gather the rose
of all roses--"
"Stop!" said Lorimer suddenly. "Who are you talking about?"
"Who!" cried Sigurd excitedly. "Surely you know. Of him--that tall,
proud, grey-eyed Englishman,--your foe, your rival; the rich, cruel
Errington. . . ."
Lorimer's hand fell heavily on his shoulder, and his voice was very
stern.
"What nonsense, Sigurd! You don't know what you are talking about
to-day. Errington my foe! Good heavens! Why, he's my best friend! Do you
hear?"
Sigurd stared up at him in vacant surprise, but nodded feebly.
"Well, mind you remember it! The spirits tell lies, my boy, if they say
that he is my enemy. I would give my life to save his!"
He spoke quietly, and rose from his seat on the moss as he finished his
words, and his face had an expression that was both noble and resolute.
Sigurd still gazed upon him. "And you,--you do not love Thelma?" he
murmured.
Lorimer started, but controlled himself instantly. His frank English
eyes met the feverishly brilliant ones fixed so appealingly upon him.
"Certainly not!" he said calmly, with a serene smile. "What makes you
think of such a thing? Quite wrong, Sigurd,--the spirits have made a
mistake again! Come along,--let us join the others."
But Sigurd would not accompany him. He sprang away like a frightened
animal, in haste, and abruptly plunging into the depths of a wood that
bordered on Olaf Güldmar's grounds, was soon lost to sight. Lorimer
looked after him in a little perplexity.
"I wonder if he ever gets dangerous?" he thought. "A fellow with such
queer notions might do some serious harm without meaning it. I'll keep
an eye on him!"
And once or twice during that same evening, he felt inclined to speak to
Errington on the subject, but no suitable opportunity presented
itself--and after a while, with his habitual indolence, he partly forgot
the circumstance.
On the following Sunday afternoon Thelma sat alone under the wide
blossom-covered porch, reading. Her father and Sigurd,--accompanied by
Errington and his friends,--had all gone for a mountain ramble,
promising to return for supper, a substantial meal which Britta was
already busy preparing. The afternoon was very warm,--one of those long,
lazy stretches of heat and brilliancy in which Nature seems to have lain
down to rest like a child tired of play, sleeping in the sunshine with
drooping flowers in her hands. The very ripple of the stream seemed
hushed, and Thelma, though her eyes were bent seriously on the book she
held, sighed once or twice heavily as though she were tired. There was a
change in the girl,--an undefinable something seemed to have passed over
her and toned down the redundant brightness of her beauty. She was
paler,--and there were darker shadows than usual under the splendor of
her eyes. Her very attitude, as she leaned her head against the dark,
fantastic carving of the porch, had a touch of listlessness and
indifference in it; her sweetly arched lips drooped with a plaintive
little line at the corners, and her whole air was indicative of fatigue,
mingled with sadness. She looked up now and then from the printed page,
and her gaze wandered over the stretch of the scented, flower-filled
garden, to the little silvery glimmer of the Fjord from whence arose,
like delicate black streaks against the sky, the slender masts of the
_Eulalie_,--and then she would resume her reading with a slight movement
of impatience.
The volume she held was Victor Hugo's "Orientales," and though her
sensitive imagination delighted in poetry as much as in sunshine, she
found it for once hard to rivet her attention as closely as she wished
to do, on the exquisite wealth of language, and glow of color, that
distinguishes the writings of the Shakespeare of France. Within the
house Britta was singing cheerily at her work, and the sound of her song
alone disturbed the silence. Two or three pale-blue butterflies danced
drowsily in and out a cluster of honeysuckle that trailed downwards,
nearly touching Thelma's shoulder, and a diminutive black kitten, with a
pink ribbon round its neck, sat gravely on the garden path, washing its
face with its tiny velvety paws, in that deliberate and precise fashion,
common to the spoiled and petted members of its class. Everything was
still and peaceful as became a Sunday afternoon,--so that when the sound
of a heavy advancing footstep disturbed the intense calm, the girl was
almost nervously startled, and rose from her seat with so much
precipitation, that the butterflies, who had possibly been considering
whether her hair might not be some new sort of sunflower, took fright
and flew far upwards, and the demure kitten scared out of its absurd
self-consciousness, scrambled hastily up the nearest little tree. The
intruder on the quietude of Güldmar's domain was the Rev. Mr.
Dyceworthy,--and as Thelma, standing erect in the porch, beheld him
coming, her face grew stern and resolute, and her eyes flashed
disdainfully.
Ignoring the repellant, almost defiant dignity of the girl's attitude,
Mr. Dyceworthy advanced, rather out of breath and somewhat heated,--and
smiling benevolently, nodded his head by way of greeting, without
removing his hat.
"Ah, Fröken Thelma!" he observed condescendingly. "And how are you
to-day? You look remarkably well--remarkably so, indeed!" And he eyed
her with mild approval.
"I am well, I thank you," she returned quietly. "My father is not in,
Mr. Dyceworthy."
The Reverend Charles wiped his hot face, and his smile grew wider.
"What matter?" he inquired blandly. "We shall, no doubt, entertain
ourselves excellently without him! It is with you alone, Fröken, that I
am desirous to hold converse."
And, without waiting for her permission, he entered the porch, and
settled himself comfortably on the bench opposite to her, heaving a sigh
of relief as he did so. Thelma remained standing--and the Lutheran
minister's covetous eye glanced greedily over the sweeping curves of her
queenly figure, the dazzling whiteness of her slim arched throat, and
the glitter of her rich hair. She was silent--and there was something in
her manner as she confronted him that made it difficult for Mr.
Dyceworthy to speak. He hummed and hawed several times, and settled his
stiff collar once or twice as though it hurt him; finally he said with
an evident effort--
"I have found a--a--trinket of yours--a trifling toy--which, perhaps,
you would be glad to have again." And he drew carefully out of his
waistcoat pocket, a small parcel wrapped up in tissue paper, which he
undid with his fat fingers, thus displaying the little crucifix he had
kept so long in his possession. "Concerning this," he went on, holding
it up before her, "I am grievously troubled,--and would fain say a few
necessary words--"
She interrupted him, reaching out her hand for the cross as she spoke.
"That was my mother's crucifix," she said in solemn, infinitely tender
accents, with a mist as of unshed tears in her sweet blue eyes. "It was
round her neck when she died. I knew I had lost it, and was very unhappy
about it. I do thank you with all my heart for bringing it back to me!"
And the hauteur of her face relaxed, and her smile--that sudden sweet
smile of hers,--shone forth like a gleam of sunshine athwart a cloud.
Mr. Dyceworthy's breath came and went with curious rapidity. His visage
grew pale, and a clammy dew broke out upon his forehead. He took the
hand she held out,--a fair, soft hand with a pink palm like an upcurled
shell,--and laid the little cross within it, and still retaining his
hold of her, he stammeringly observed--
"Then we are friends, Fröken Thelma! . . . good friends, I hope?"
She withdrew her fingers quickly from his hot, moist clasp, and her
bright smile vanished.
"I do not see that at all!" she replied frigidly. "Friendship is very
rare. To be friends, one must have similar tastes and sympathies,--many
things which we have not,--and which we shall never have. I am slow to
call any person my friend."
Mr. Dyceworthy's small pursy mouth drew itself into a tight thin line.
"Except," he said, with a suave sneer, "except when 'any person' happens
to be a rich Englishman with a handsome face and easy manners! . . . then
you are not slow to make friends, Fröken,--on the contrary, you are
remarkably quick!"
The cold haughty stare with which the girl favored him might have frozen
a less conceited man to a pillar of ice.
"What do you mean?" she asks abruptly, and with an air of surprise.
The minister's little ferret-like eyes, drooped under their puny lids,
and he fidgeted on the seat with uncomfortable embarrassment. He
answered her in the mildest of mild voices.
"You are unlike yourself, my dear Fröken!" he said, with a soothing
gesture of one of his well-trimmed white hands. "You are generally frank
and open, but to-day I find you just a little,--well!--what shall I
say--secretive! Yes, we will call it secretive! Oh, fie!" and Mr.
Dyceworthy laughed a gentle little laugh; "you must not pretend
ignorance of what I mean! All the neighborhood is talking of you and the
gentleman you are so often seen with. Notably concerning Sir Philip
Errington,--the vile tongue of rumor is busy,--for, according to his
first plans when his yacht arrived here, he was bound for the North
Cape,--and should have gone there days ago. Truly, I think,--and there
are others who think also in the same spirit of interest for you,--that
the sooner this young man leaves our peaceful Fjord the better,--and the
less he has to do with the maidens of the district, the safer we shall
be from the risk of scandal." And he heaved a pious sigh.
Thelma turned her eyes upon him in wonderment.
"I do not understand you," she said coldly. "Why do you speak of
_others_? No others are interested in what I do? Why should they be? Why
should _you_ be? There is no need!"
Mr. Dyceworthy grew slightly excited. He felt like a runner nearing the
winning-post.
"Oh, you wrong yourself, my dear Fröken," he murmured softly, with a
sickly attempt at tenderness in his tone. "You really wrong yourself! It
is impossible,--for me at least, not to be interested in you,--even for
our dear Lord's sake. It troubles me to the inmost depths of my soul to
behold in you one of the foolish virgins whose light hath been
extinguished for lack of the saving oil,--to see you wandering as a lost
sheep in the paths of darkness and error, without a hand to rescue your
steps from the near and dreadful precipice! Ay, truly! . . . my spirit
yearneth for you as a mother for an own babe--fain would I save you from
the devices of the evil one,--fain would I--" here the minister drew out
his handkerchief and pressed it lightly to his eyes,--then, as if with
an effort overcoming his emotion, he added, with the gravity of a
butcher presenting an extortionate bill, "but first,--before my own
humble desires for your salvation--first, ere I go further in converse,
it behoveth me to enter on the Lord's business!"
Thelma bent her head slightly, with an air as though she said: "Indeed;
pray do not be long about it!" And, leaning back against the porch, she
waited somewhat impatiently.
"The image I have just restored to you," went on Mr. Dyceworthy in his
most pompous and ponderous manner, "you say belonged to your unhappy--"
"She was not unhappy," interposed the girl, calmly.
"Ay, ay!" and the minister nodded with a superior air of wisdom. "So you
imagine, so you think,--you must have been too young to judge of these
things. She died--"
"I saw her die," again she interrupted, with a musing tenderness in her
voice. "She smiled and kissed me,--then she laid her thin, white hand on
this crucifix, and, closing her eyes, she went to sleep. They told me it
was death, since then I have known that death is beautiful!"
Mr. Dyceworthy coughed,--a little cough of quiet incredulity. He was not
fond of sentiment in any form, and the girl's dreamily pensive manner
annoyed him. Death "beautiful?" Faugh! it was the one thing of all
others that he dreaded; it was an unpleasant necessity, concerning which
he thought as little as possible. Though he preached frequently on the
peace of the grave and the joys of heaven,--he was far from believing in
either,--he was nervously terrified of illness, and fled like a
frightened hare from the very rumor of any infectious disorder, and he
had never been known to attend a death-bed. And now, in answer to
Thelma, he nodded piously and rubbed his hands, and said--
"Yes, yes; no doubt, no doubt! All very proper on your part, I am sure!
But concerning this same image of which I came to speak,--it is most
imperative that you should be brought to recognize it as a purely carnal
object, unfitting a maiden's eyes to rest upon. The true followers of
the Gospel are those who strive to forget the sufferings of our dear
Lord as much as possible,--or to think of them only in spirit. The minds
of sinners, alas! are easily influenced,--and it is both unseemly and
dangerous to gaze freely upon the carven semblance of the Lord's limbs!
Yea, truly, it hath oft been considered as damnatory to the soul,--more
especially in the cases of women immured as nuns, who encourage
themselves in an undue familiarity with our Lord, by gazing long and
earnestly upon his body nailed to the accursèd tree."
Here Mr. Dyceworthy paused for breath. Thelma was silent, but a faint
smile gleamed on her face.
"Wherefore," he went on, "I do adjure you, as you desire grace and
redemption, to utterly cast from you the vile trinket, I have,--Heaven
knows how reluctantly! . . . returned to your keeping,--to trample upon
it, and renounce it as a device of Satan. . ." He stopped, surprised and
indignant, as she raised the much-abused emblem to her lips and kissed
it reverently.
"It is the sign of peace and salvation," she said steadily, "to me, at
least. You waste your words, Mr. Dyceworthy; I am a Catholic."
"Oh, say not so!" exclaimed the minister, now thoroughly roused to a
pitch of unctuous enthusiasm. "Say not so. Poor child! who knowest not
the meaning of the word used. Catholic signifies universal. God forbid a
universal Papacy! You are not a Catholic--no! You are a Roman--by which
name we understand all that is most loathsome and unpleasing unto God!
But I will wrestle for your soul,--yea, night and day will I bend my
spiritual sinews to the task,--I will obtain the victory,--I will
exorcise the fiend! Alas, alas! you are on the brink of hell--think of
it!" and Mr. Dyceworthy stretched out his hand with his favorite pulpit
gesture. "Think of the roasting and burning,--the scorching and
withering of souls! Imagine, if you can, the hopeless, bitter, eternal
damnation," and here he smacked his lips as though he were tasting
something excellent,--"from which there is no escape! . . . for which
there shall be no remedy!"
"It is a gloomy picture," said Thelma, with a quiet sparkle in her eye.
"I am sorry,--for _you_. But I am happier,--my faith teaches of
purgatory--there is always a little hope!"
"There is none! there is none!" exclaimed the minister rising in
excitement from his seat, and swaying ponderously to and fro as he
gesticulated with hands and head. "You are doomed,--doomed! There is no
middle course between hell and heaven. It must be one thing or the
other; God deals not in half-measures! Pause, oh pause, ere you decide
to fall! Even at the latest hour the Lord desires to save your
soul,--the Lord yearns for your redemption, and maketh me to yearn also.
Fröken Thelma!" and Mr. Dyceworthy's voice deepened in solemnity, "there
is a way which the Lord hath whispered in mine ears,--a way that
pointeth to the white robe and the crown of glory,--a way by which you
shall possess the inner peace of the heart with bliss on earth as the
forerunner of bliss in heaven!"
She looked at him steadfastly. "And that way is--what?" she inquired.
Mr. Dyceworthy hesitated, and wished with all his heart that this girl
was not so thoroughly self-possessed. Any sign of timidity in her would
have given him an increase of hardihood. But her eyes were coldly
brilliant, and glanced him over without the smallest embarrassment. He
took refuge in his never-failing remedy, his benevolent smile--a smile
that covered a multitude of hypocrisies.
"You ask a plain question, Fröken," he said sweetly, "and I should be
loth not to give you a plain answer. That way--that glorious way of
salvation for you is--through _me_!"
And his countenance shone with smug self-satisfaction as he spoke, and
he repeated softly, "Yes, yes; that way is through me!"
She moved with a slight gesture of impatience. "It is a pity to talk any
more," she said rather wearily. "It is all no use! Why do you wish to
change me in my religion? I do not wish to change _you_. I do not see
why we should speak of such things at all."
"Of course!" replied Mr. Dyceworthy blandly. "Of course you do not see.
And why? Because you are blind." Here he drew a little nearer to her,
and looked covetously at the curve of her full, firm waist.
"Oh, why!" he resumed in a sort of rapture--"why should we say it is a
pity to talk any more? Why should we say it is all no use? It _is_ of
use,--it is noble, it is edifying to converse of the Lord's good
pleasure! And what is His good pleasure at this moment? To unite two
souls in His service! Yea, He hath turned my desire towards you, Fröken
Thelma,--even as Jacob's desire was towards Rachel! Let me see this
hand." He made a furtive grab at the white taper fingers that played
listlessly with the jessamine leaves on the porch, but the girl
dexterously withdrew them from his clutch and moved a little further
back, her face flushing proudly. "Oh, will it not come to me? Cruel
hand!" and he rolled his little eyes with an absurdly sentimental air of
reproach. "It is shy--it will not clasp the hand of its protector! Do
not be afraid, Fröken! . . . I, Charles Dyceworthy, am not the man to
trifle with your young affections! Let them rest where they have flown!
I accept them! Yea! . . . in spite of wrath and error and moral
destitution,--my spirit inclineth towards you,--in the language of
carnal men, I love you! More than this, I am willing to take you as my
lawful wife--"
He broke off abruptly, somewhat startled at the bitter scorn of the
flashing eyes that, like two quivering stars, were blazing upon him. Her
voice, clear as a bell ringing in frosty air, cut through the silence
like a sweep of a sword-blade.
"How dare you!" she said, with a wrathful thrill in her low, intense
tones. "How dare you come here to insult me!"
Insult her! He,--the Reverend Charles Dyceworthy,--considered guilty of
insult in offering honorable marriage to a mere farmer's daughter! He
could not believe his own ears,--and in his astonishment he looked up at
her. Looking, he recoiled and shrank into himself, like a convicted
knave before some queenly accuser. The whole form of the girl seemed to
dilate with indignation. From her proud mouth, arched like a bow, sprang
barbed arrows of scorn that flew straightly and struck home.
"Always I have guessed what you wanted," she went on in that deep,
vibrating tone which had such a rich quiver of anger within it; "but I
never thought you would--" She paused, and a little disdainful laugh
broke from her lips. "You would make _me_ your wife--_me_? You think
_me_ likely to accept such an offer?" And she drew herself up with a
superb gesture, and regarded him fixedly.
"Oh, pride, pride!" murmured the unabashed Dyceworthy, recovering from
the momentary abasement into which he had been thrown by her look and
manner. "How it overcometh our natures and mastereth our spirits! My
dear, my dearest Fröken,--I fear you do not understand me! Yet it is
natural that you should not; you were not prepared for the offer of
my--my affections,"--and he beamed all over with benevolence,--"and I
can appreciate a maidenly and becoming coyness, even though it assume
the form of a repellant and unreasonable anger. But take courage, my--my
dear girl!--our Lord forbid that I should wantonly play with the
delicate emotions of your heart! Poor little heart! does it flutter?"
and Mr. Dyceworthy leered sweetly. "I will give it time to recover
itself! Yes, yes! a little time! and then you will put that pretty hand
in mine"--here he drew nearer to her, "and with one kiss we will seal
the compact!"
And he attempted to steal his arm round her waist, but the girl sprang
back indignantly, and pulling down a thick branch of the clambering
prickly roses from the porch, held it in front of her by way of
protection. Mr. Dyceworthy laughed indulgently.
"Very pretty--very pretty indeed!" he mildly observed, eyeing her as she
stood at bay barricaded by the roses. "Quite a picture! There, there! do
not be frightened,--such shyness is very natural! We will embrace in the
Lord another day! In the meantime one little word--_the_ word--will
suffice me,--yea, even one little smile,--to show me that you understand
my words,--that you love me"--here he clasped his plump hands together
in flabby ecstasy--"even as you are loved!"
His absurd attitude,--the weak, knock-kneed manner in which his clumsy
legs seemed, from the force of sheer sentiment, to bend under his
weighty body, and the inanely amatory expression of his puffy
countenance, would have excited most women to laughter,--and Thelma was
perfectly conscious of his utterly ridiculous appearance, but she was
too thoroughly indignant to take the matter in a humorous light.
"Love you!" she exclaimed, with a movement of irrepressible loathing.
"You must be mad! I would rather die than marry you!"
Mr. Dyceworthy's face grew livid and his little eyes sparkled
vindictively,--but he restrained his inward rage, and merely smiled,
rubbing his hands softly one against the other.
"Let us be calm!" he said soothingly. "Whatever we do, let us be calm!
Let us not provoke one another to wrath! Above all things, let us, in a
spirit of charity and patience, reason out this matter without undue
excitement. My ears have most painfully heard your last words, which,
taken literally, might mean that you reject my honorable offer. The
question is, _do_ they mean this? I cannot,--I will not believe that you
would foolishly stand in the way of your own salvation,"--and he shook
his head with doleful gentleness. "Moreover, Fröken Thelma, though it
sorely distresses me to speak of it,--it is my duty, as a minister of
the Lord, to remind you that an honest marriage,--a marriage of virtue
and respectability such as I propose, is the only way to restore your
reputation,--which, alas! is sorely damaged, and--"
Mr. Dyceworthy stopped abruptly, a little alarmed, as she suddenly cast
aside the barrier of roses and advanced toward him, her blue eyes
blazing.
"My reputation!" she said haughtily. "Who speaks of it?"
"Oh dear, dear me!" moaned the minister pathetically. "Sad! . . . very
sad to see so ungovernable a temper, so wild and untrained a
disposition! Alas, alas! how frail we are without the Lord's
support,--without the strong staff of the Lord's mercy to lean upon! Not
I, my poor child, not I, but the whole village speaks of you; to you the
ignorant people attribute all the sundry evils that of late have fallen
sorely upon them,--bad harvests, ill-luck with the fishing, poverty,
sickness,"--here Mr. Dyceworthy pressed the tips of his fingers
delicately together, and looked at her with a benevolent
compassion,--"and they call it witchcraft,--yes! strange, very strange!
But so it is,--ignorant as they are, such ignorance is not easily
enlightened,--and though I," he sighed, "have done my poor best to
disabuse their minds of the suspicions against you, I find it is a
matter in which I, though a humble mouthpiece of the Gospel, am
powerless--quite powerless!"
She relaxed her defiant attitude, and moved away from him; the shadow of
a smile was on her lips.
"It is not my fault if the people are foolish," she said coldly; "I have
never done harm to any one that I know of." And turning abruptly, she
seemed about to enter the house, but the minister dexterously placed
himself in her way, and barred her passage.
"Stay, oh, stay!" he exclaimed with unctuous fervor. "Pause, unfortunate
girl, ere you reject the strong shield and buckler that the Lord has, in
His great mercy, offered you, in my person! For I must warn you,--Fröken
Thelma, I must warn you seriously of the danger you run! I will not pain
you by referring to the grave charges brought against your father, who
is, alas! in spite of my spiritual wrestling with the Lord for his sake,
still no better than a heathen savage; no! I will say nothing of this.
But what,--what shall I say,"--here he lowered his voice to a tone of
mysterious and weighty reproach,--"what shall I say of your most
unseemly and indiscreet companionship with these worldly young men who
are visiting the Fjord for their idle pastime? Ah dear, dear! This is
indeed a heavy scandal and a sore burden to my soul,--for up to this
time I have, in spite of many faults in your disposition, considered you
were at least of a most maidenly and decorous deportment,--but now--now!
to think that you should, of your own free will and choice, consent to
be the plaything of this idle stroller from the wicked haunts of
fashion,--the hour's toy of this Sir Philip Errington! Fröken Thelma, I
would never have believed it of you!" And he drew himself up with
ponderous and sorrowful dignity.
A burning blush had covered Thelma's face at the mention of Errington's
name, but it soon faded, leaving her very pale. She changed her position
so that she confronted Mr. Dyceworthy,--her clear blue eyes regarded him
steadfastly.
"Is this what is said of me?" she asked calmly.
"It is,--it is, most unfortunately!" returned the minister, shaking his
bullet-like head a great many times; then, with a sort of elephantine
cheerfulness, he added, "but what matter? There is time to remedy these
things. I am willing to set myself as a strong barrier against the evil
noises of rumor! Am I selfish or ungenerous? The Lord forbid it! No
matter how _I_ am compromised, no matter how _I_ am misjudged,--I am
still willing to take you as my lawful wife Fröken Thelma,--but," and
here he shook his forefinger at her with a pretended playfulness, "I
will permit no more converse with Sir Philip Errington; no, no! I cannot
allow it! . . . I cannot, indeed!"
She still looked straight at him,--her bosom rose and fell rapidly with
her passionate breath, and there was such an eloquent breath of scorn in
her face that he winced under it as though struck by a sharp scourge.
"You are not worth my anger!" she said slowly, this time without a
tremor in her rich voice. "One must have something to be angry with, and
you--you are nothing! Neither man nor beast,--for men are brave, and
beasts tell no lies! Your wife! I!" and she laughed aloud,--then with a
gesture of command, "Go!" she exclaimed, "and never let me see your face
again!"
The clear scornful laughter,--the air of absolute authority with which
she spoke,--would have stung the most self-opinionated of men, even
though his conscience were enveloped in a moral leather casing of
hypocrisy and arrogance. And, notwithstanding his invariable air of
mildness, Mr. Dyceworthy had a temper. That temper rose to a white heat
just now,--every drop of blood receded from his countenance,--and his
soft hands clenched themselves in a particularly ugly and threatening
manner. Yet he managed to preserve his suave composure.
"Alas, alas!" he murmured. "How sorely my soul is afflicted to see you
thus, Fröken! I am amazed--I am distressed! Such language from your
lips! oh fie, fie! And has it come to this! And must I resign the hope I
had of saving your poor soul? and must I withdraw my spiritual
protection from you?" This he asked with a suggestive sneer of his prim
mouth,--and then continued, "I must--alas, I must! My conscience will
not permit me to do more than pray for you! And as is my duty, I shall,
in a spirit of forbearance and charity, speak warningly to Sir Philip
concerning--"
But Thelma did not permit him to finish his sentence. She sprang forward
like a young leopardess, and with a magnificent outward sweep of her arm
motioned him down the garden path.
"Out of my sight,--_coward_!" she cried, and then stood waiting for him
to obey her, her whole frame vibrating with indignation like a harp
struck too roughly. She looked so terribly beautiful, and there was such
a suggestive power in that extended bare white arm of hers, that the
minister, though quaking from head to heel with disappointment and
resentment, judged it prudent to leave her.
"Certainly, I will take my departure, Fröken!" he said meekly, while his
teeth glimmered wolfishly through his pale lips, in a snarl more than a
smile. "It is best you should be alone to recover yourself--from
this--this undue excitement! I shall not repeat my--my--offer; but I am
sure your good sense will--in time--show you how very unjust and hasty
you have been in this matter--and--and you will be sorry! Yes, indeed! I
am quite sure you will be sorry! I wish you good day, Fröken Thelma!"
She made him no reply, and he turned from the house and left her,
strolling down the flower-bordered path as though he were in the best of
all possible moods with himself and the universe. But, in truth, he
muttered a heavy oath under his breath--an oath that was by no means in
keeping with his godly and peaceful disposition. Once, as he walked, he
looked back,--and saw the woman he coveted now more than ever, standing
erect in the porch, tall, fair and loyal in her attitude, looking like
some proud empress who had just dismissed an unworthy vassal. A farmer's
daughter! and she had refused Mr. Dyceworthy with disdain! He had much
ado to prevent himself shaking his fist at her!
"The lofty shall be laid low, and the stiff-necked shall be humbled," he
thought, as with a vicious switch of his stick he struck off a fragrant
head of purple clover. "Conceited fool of a girl! Hopes to be 'my lady'
does she? She had better take care!"
Here he stopped abruptly in his walk as if a thought had struck him,--a
malignant joy sparkled in his eyes, and he flourished his stick
triumphantly in the air. "I'll have her yet!" he exclaimed half-aloud.
"I'll set Lovisa on her!" And his countenance cleared; he quickened his
pace like a man having some pressing business to fulfill, and was soon
in his boat, rowing towards Bosekop with unaccustomed speed and energy.
Meanwhile Thelma stood motionless where he had left her,--she watched
the retreating form of her portly suitor till he had altogether
disappeared,--then she pressed one hand on her bosom, sighed, and
laughed a little. Glancing at the crucifix so lately restored to her,
she touched it with her lips and fastened it to a small silver chain she
wore, and then a shadow swept over her fair face that made it strangely
sad and weary. Her lips quivered pathetically; she shaded her eyes with
her curved fingers as though the sunlight hurt her,--then with faltering
steps she turned away from the warm stretch of garden, brilliant with
blossom, and entered the house. There was a sense of outrage and insult
upon her, and though in her soul she treated Mr. Dyceworthy's
observations with the contempt they deserved, his coarse allusion to Sir
Philip Errington had wounded her more than she cared to admit to
herself. Once in the quiet sitting-room, she threw herself on her knees
by her father's arm-chair, and laying her proud little golden head down
on her folded arms, she broke into a passion of silent tears.
Who shall unravel the mystery of a woman's weeping? Who shall declare
whether it is a pain or a relief to the overcharged heart? The dignity
of a crowned queen is capable of utterly dissolving and disappearing in
a shower of tears, when Love's burning finger touches the pulse and
marks its slow or rapid beatings. And Thelma wept as many of her sex
weep, without knowing why, save that all suddenly she felt herself most
lonely and forlorn like Sainte Beuve's--
"Colombe gemissante,
Qui demande par pitié
Sa moitié,
Sa moitié loin d'elle absente!"