It was a pretty scene. The long ball-room was draped in roseate colors
and decorated with flowers. The walls were exquisitely painted in
appropriate figures, and the waxed oaken floor shone so bright that it
reflected the flying figures of the men and women who whirled around it
in the sensuous measures of the gay waltz.
"Did you ever see anything so pretty?" repeated Mrs. West, with a
certain pride in this grand old family whom she served; and her niece
answered, unperturbably:
"Yes."
"You have? Where?" whispered the good soul, incredulously.
"In New York," replied the girl. "I was at a ball there last winter. It
was very grand--much grander than this."
Nevertheless, she continued to gaze with a great deal of interest
at the animated scene. There were more than a dozen couples upon
the floor, the beautiful, richly dressed women and black-coated men
showing to their greatest advantage in the gay dance. Leonora saw
Lord Lancaster's tall, splendid figure among them. He had Lady Adela
Eastwood for a partner. His arm was clasped lightly about her tall,
slender form; her dark, brilliant face drooped toward his shoulder with
rather a languishing air.
"Lady Adela is Lord Lancaster's partner," whispered the housekeeper.
"Aren't they a well-matched pair? He is so fair, she is so dark, they
go well together."
"Very well," said Leonora. She watched the two figures admiringly,
and thought how exquisitely the light of the lamps shone down on Lady
Adela's ruby silk and her flashing diamonds. The black hair bound into
a braided coronet on the top of the graceful head contrasted well with
the fair locks that crowned Lord Lancaster's brow.
"Yes, they go well together," she said to herself. "Will expediency and
inclination go hand in hand? Will he marry her?"
"Lady Adela has superb diamonds," said the housekeeper, in her shrill
whisper.
"Yes, they are very nice," said Leonora. "But I have--a friend who has
much finer ones. Her father gave them to her for a birthday present.
They cost fifty thousand dollars."
"What an odd girl! She is not one bit astonished at the splendor of
anything she sees. She has seen a great deal of the world, really, and
America must be a much finer place than I ever thought it," mused Mrs.
West to herself.
"There, the waltz is over, Aunt West," whispered the girl, clinging to
her arm. "Hadn't we better go now? Some one may come out here."
"Yes, if you have seen enough--have you?" Mrs. West replied, and
Leonora answered:
"Yes, quite enough, thank you. I do not like to look at such gayety,
and my dear papa so lately dead. Oh, Aunt West, please let us walk
out in the air awhile. It is so warm here, and these vines are full of
spiders and cobwebs, just like that china-closet."
When Leonora West said "please" in that coaxing tone there were not
many people who could resist her. Mrs. West did not. She said to
herself that it would be no harm to walk about the grounds a bit with
her niece. She could not refuse her a breath of fresh air, certainly.
She saw Lady Lancaster sitting in a chair in the ball-room, and she did
not think it likely that she would stir from her seat for at least an
hour.
"So I'll run the risk," said the kind-hearted woman. "Come along,
Leonora."
They went down into the beautiful grounds, along the moonlighted paths,
past gleaming groups of statuary, ghost-like in the weird light, past
beds of rarest flowers, past thickets of roses, walls of honeysuckles,
with the white radiance of the moon shining over everything.
"How sweet this is!" the girl whispered. "When we were crossing the
ocean, I grew so tired of the water and the sky; I longed for the
green grass and the flowers. How soft and fragrant the air is, and how
beautiful the moonlight! I think I could stay out here all night."
"You would catch your death of cold," Mrs. West said, aghast. "The dews
are very heavy."
"Oh, of course, I don't mean to; but it is so romantic. It is like an
Eastern night, so soft and balmy, and--oh, oh! Aunt West, is that the
nightingale--the English nightingale papa used to love so dearly?"
She clapped her little hands. It was the nightingale, indeed, hid in
some flowery covert, all alone,
"Pouring his full heart,
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art."
"Yes, it is the nightingale," said Mrs. West, delighted that Leonora
had found something at last in England to grow enthusiastic over.
"There are so many of them here, and it is down by the Magic Mirror you
hear that one singing. It is their favorite resort."
"The Magic Mirror?" echoed Leonora.
"Yes. It is a pretty pond of water a little further on, all fringed
with willows and roses. It is as smooth and clear as a mirror, and
there is an old tradition that the youth or maiden gazing into the
Magic Mirror by moon light, in the month of June, may see there
reflected the face of his or her life companion."
"Oh, Aunt West, let us go there!" cried the girl, eagerly.
"What! you don't believe in that silly tradition?" laughed the good
woman.
"No, no, but to hear the nightingales," cried Leonora. "Is it far,
auntie?"
"No; only a short distance further on, at a little bend where two paths
meet. But we have come so far already--"
"And you are tired," said the girl, with generous compunction. "I ought
to have remembered that." She pushed Mrs. West gently into a low rustic
seat by the path, and said, kindly: "Sit here and rest while I go find
it myself. The nightingale's voice shall guide me."
"You will not be long?" said Mrs. West, hesitatingly.
"No, no. May I go, Aunt West? Will you wait for me here?" pleadingly.
"Yes," answered the kind, indulgent soul; and Leonora set off at
a quick pace, following the sound of the nightingale's voice, and
repeating under her breath those exquisite lines to the nightingale
written by Sir Walter Scott.
"Beautiful nightingale, who shall portray
All the varying turns of thy flowing lay?
And where is the lyre whose chords shall reply
To the notes of thy changeful melody?
We may linger, indeed, and listen to thee,
But the linkéd chain of thy harmony
Is not for mortal hands to unbind,
Nor the clew of thy mazy music to find.
Thy home is the wood on the echoing hill,
Or the verdant banks of the forest rill;
And soft as the south wind the branches among,
Thy plaintive lament goes floating along."
She went on swiftly through the beautiful night, guided by the
nightingale's voice, and with a fast-beating heart; for, with all a
young girl's folly, she meant to look into the Magic Mirror to see,
perchance, the face of her future lord and master.
Louder and nearer grew the notes of the nightingale, as Leonora
hastened on. She thought she had never heard anything so sweet. At
first it had only been one bird, but now several had joined their notes
together in a medley of intoxicating music that swelled deliciously
upon the fragrant air of the night. She walked lightly, almost holding
her breath as she came upon the scene, for fear of frightening them
away.
She passed from the shadow of the grand oaks that had overhung her
path, out into an open space, and the Magic Mirror burst upon her
sight--a little limpid lake fringed with willows and sweet-brier and
water-lilies, and so clear that the full, white radiance of the moon
and stars was mirrored on its tranquil breast, while, hid in the
thicket of rose and willow, the night birds were pouring out their
hearts in song.
"Oh, how sweet!" cried the girl. She clasped her hands in an ecstasy.
Her heart was touched by the peaceful beauty and enchanting repose of
the scene. Scarce a ripple stirred the bosom of the quiet lake, and the
water-lilies, drooping to look at their fair reflections, were scarcely
ruffled by the soft, light breeze that played around the enchanting
spot.
Leonora moved softly forward to the verge of the Magic Mirror, and
bending forward, with a slightly quickened heart-beat, gazed down into
its crystal-clear depths. She saw her own face gazing back at her with
all its fresh young beauty, its eager eyes and parted lips, the dark
veil twisted carelessly about her head, and the loose tresses of her
hair flowing beneath it. She saw all this clearly as in a mirror, and
for a moment she remained intently gazing at it, wondering if the old
legend were indeed true, and if the face of her future husband would
indeed rise from those mysterious depths by the side of her own.
So absorbed was she in contemplation that she did not detect the faint
scent of cigar smoke that suddenly filled the air; she did not hear
the approaching step that was muffled also, not to frighten the birds
away. She remained gazing intently into the water, half bent forward,
her hand grasping the slender branch of a willow, until suddenly, in
the mystic pool, a face looked over her shoulder--the face of her fate.