In the dressing-room Faith was seized upon in the warmest manner by
Mrs. Stoutenburgh, who looked very pretty in her dress of bright
crimson silk.
"I'm so glad you've come back, dear. And how well you're looking!--a
little thin, though. But you'll soon make up for that. You're just as
lovely as you can be, Faith--do you know it?"
"No, ma'am."--Her _flowers_, she knew, were as lovely as they could be.
"Jerry brought us, Mrs. Stoutenburgh, after all, and pretty fast too."
"O he can go fast enough. You needn't look so sober, child--of course
no one thinks so but me, and nobody ever minds what I say. _That's_
pretty, I suppose you'll allow," she said laughing, and bending down
closer to Faith's holly leaves,--"what is it, Faith? basswood?"
"Don't you know holly, Mrs. Stoutenburgh? And the berries are
winterberries."
"Yes my dear--I perceive. You mustn't get angry with me, child--I tell
you nobody does, not even your grave escort. At least not for anything
I do to _him_. Well I'll go down and electrify people with the news
that you're coming." And the crimson dress floated off to the tune of a
light step and a merry voice. And more slowly and more doubtfully the
black dress and winterberries followed her. Perhaps in very truth Faith
would have been willing that Mr. Stoutenburgh should have taken her
under his broad wing for that going down stairs. At least she was as
absolutely grave and quiet as anybody ever saw her, and a little more
inclined to be shrinking. But Mr. Linden was alone in the hall at that
minute, so there was no one else to shrink from; and if Faith wanted to
shrink from him, she hardly could,--there was such an absence of
anything to alarm her, both in his look and manner. Therefore, though
she had to go down stairs upon his arm, and pass sundry people on their
way up, Faith felt that he was a shield between her and the glances and
words which he so little regarded. Eyes and tongues indeed ventured hut
little in his presence; but that protection of course extended only to
the centre of the drawing-room, and the welcome which Faith received
from Mrs. Somers,--then she must shield herself. Then truly, for a
while, she was taken possession of by Squire Stoutenburgh, who walked
with her up and down, and said all manner of kind things.
Faith had no particular skill to shield herself from anything, and
indeed gave herself no thought about it. She took what came, in a
simple and quiet spirit, which was very apt to strike like a bee the
right part of every flower; or that perhaps carried its own honey
along. So she walked up and down with Mr. Stoutenburgh; and so she
afterwards entered into the demands of a posse of her old and young
friends who had not seen her for a good while.
Amidst a little group of these people, collected benignly around Faith,
Dr. Harrison presently intruded himself. Now Dr. Harrison was a lion,
and the smaller animals naturally fell off from him, which was
precisely what he expected them to do. The doctor had the field soon
clear.
"What have you been doing to yourself?" he said to Faith with the
kindly, familiar manner which had grown up between them.
"Taking good care,"--she said, in smiling answer to his question.
"Who took the care? yourself?"
"Yes."
"I thought so."
"Why, Dr. Harrison?"
"Excuse me," said he. "Anybody else would have done it better."
"No," said she shaking her head,--"you are wrong."
"You have been--" said he, looking at her,--"you have been 'doing your
duty' too hard."
"Can one do that, Dr. Harrison?"
"Certainly!"
"I haven't been doing it this time."
"Do you remember," he said sitting down by her and lowering his
voice,--"what you said once about the flowers of the wilderness?"
"Yes."
"Would you like to see some of them?"
"In the wilderness?"
"No," said he smiling. "I can shew you one family of them, by their
portraits, here--to-night."
"I would like to see them in the wilderness or anywhere!" said Faith.
"Then if you'll come with me"--
And the next thing was Dr. Harrison's walking off the black silk and
winterberries before all the eyes of the people and through one room
after another, till a little one-side room was reached which was not a
thoroughfare to anything. In this little room was a table and a lamp
upon it, and also several very large thin books. There was also, which
was singular, a very comfortable easy chair. In this Dr. Harrison
installed his charge close by the table, and drew up one of the volumes.
"I am going to introduce to you," he said, "the whole family of the
Rhododendrons."
"Rhododendron?"--said Faith. "I never saw them."
"It is their loss," said the doctor; "but here they are."
It was as he said;--the whole family of the plant, in the most superb
style of portraiture and presentation. Full size and full colour; one
of the most magnificent of such works. Faith had never seen a
Rhododendron, and even in her dreams had never visited a wilderness
where such flowers grew. Her exquisite delight fully satisfied Dr.
Harrison, and quite kept her attention from herself and the fact of her
being shut off from the rest of the company. Now and then one and
another would drop in and look at what they were about, with curiosity
if not with sympathy; but Rhododendrons were not alluring to most of
the people, nor to say truth was Dr. Harrison. With most urbane
politeness he dispersed any desire to remain and look over his
proceedings which might have been felt by some of the intruders; or
contrived that they should find nothing to detain them.
It was a long business, to turn over all those delicious portraits of
floral life and give anything like a sufficient look at each one. Such
glories of vegetable beauty Faith had never imagined. It was almost a
new revelation. There were deep brilliant crimsons; there was the
loveliest rose-colour, in large heads of the close elegant flowers;
there were, larger still and almost incredible in their magnificence,
enormous clusters of cream-coloured and tinted and even of buff. There
were smaller and humbler members of the family, which would have been
glorious in any other companionship. There were residents of the rich
regions of the tropics; and less superb members of the temperate zones;
there were trees and shrubs; and there were little bushy, hardy
denizens of the highest and barrenest elevations of rocks and snow to
which inflorescence ever climbs. Faith almost caught her breath.
"And these are in the wilderness!" she said.
"Yes. What then?" said the doctor. Faith did not say.
"You are thinking they 'waste their sweetness'?"
"O no, indeed! I don't think that."
"You are thinking something. Please let me be the better for it."
"One ought to be the better for it," said Faith.
"Then I hope you won't refuse it to me," said Dr. Harrison gently
laughing at her.
"I was thinking, Dr Harrison, what the Bible says,--'He hath made
everything beautiful in his time';--and, 'God saw everything that he
had made, and behold it was very good.'"
The doctor turned over the leaf to a new Rhododendron. Faith's thoughts
went to Pequot, and her heart gave a bound of joy at the remembrance of
the sick woman there.
Mrs. Stoutenburgh's crimson dress was so softly worn and managed, that
the wearer thereof was close in Dr. Harrison's neighbourhood for a
minute before he was aware of her presence; which quiet motions, it
should be observed, were habitual to Mrs. Stoutenburgh, and not at all
assumed for the occasion. Therefore it was with no idea of startling
anybody, that she said presently, "My dear Faith, what _are_ you
looking at through those Rhododendrons?" Faith started, and looked up
with a bit of a smile.
"What do you see, Mrs. Stoutenburgh?" said the doctor.
"O several things," said the lady, passing her hand softly over Faith's
brow, and then with one of her sudden impulses putting her lips there.
"Do you like them, Faith?"
"Does not Mrs. Stoutenburgh like them?" said the doctor, as he placed a
chair for her in the best position left for seeing.
"Thank you," said she laughing. "I came here to be seen this evening.
And so ought some other people. How much do you pay for the monopoly,
doctor?"
"I really don't know!" said Dr. Harrison with a very slight rise of his
handsome eyebrows. "I am in Pattaquasset--which is to me a region of
uncertainties. You will know better than I, Mrs. Stoutenburgh."
"Well," said Mrs. Stoutenburgh with a wicked look at the doctor for his
sole benefit,--"speaking of Rhododendrons, which you've seen often
enough before,--don't you admire _this_--which you have _not_ seen
before?" and she touched Faith's holly leaves with the tip of her
little glove. "I should think it must stir what Mr. Linden calls your
'nerves of pleasant sensation'."
"I am honoured by your estimation," said the doctor laughing slightly.
"Miss Derrick's taste is matchless. It is an act of benevolence for her
to wear flowers."
Faith's very brow crimsoned, till she bent it from view as much as she
could. In all her truth she could not rise up there and confess that
her skill was not the skill to be commended. She wanted a shield then.
"Don't flatter yourself that you are an object of charity," said Mrs.
Stoutenburgh turning over another leaf to give Faith employment.
"They're talking of games in the other room, dear," she added in a
gentle voice,--"may I tell Mrs. Somers you will play too?"
"Yes ma'am, certainly!"
"They're not ready yet--sit still and enjoy your prints--I'll see what
they are about." And the lady left the room. Dr. Harrison sought some
particularly fine specimens and engaged Faith in talk about them and
their localities and habits, till her self-possession was restored.
"Have you heard the news about Mr. Linden?" he asked with most
nonchalant carelessness.
"What news?" said Faith, doubtful whether he meant Squire
Stoutenburgh's chapter or some other.
"Then he hasn't told you himself?"
"No," said Faith.
"I thought you ought to be authority," the doctor went on in the same
tone. "It is very good news--for him--I hope it is true. They say--I
have heard,--how beautiful the droop of those petals is!--and the shade
of colour is rare--They say, that he has a very dear friend abroad; I
mean in Europe, somewhere. Do you think it is true?"
"Yes," said Faith. She thought it was not wonderful news.
"I mean a lady friend?" said the doctor.
"Yes," said Faith again. She knew now what the doctor meant, but she
did not feel inclined to enter into the subject or to enlighten him at
all. Then too Mr. Linden might have more friends than _one_ abroad!--It
flashed upon her like a curious illumination.
"Then the story is true?" said the doctor.
"I don't know, sir," said Faith in some distress. "I know nothing about
it."
"But you don't know that it is not true?" said he looking at her.
"No, sir. I don't know."
Dr. Harrison's further questions and remarks were cut short by the
entrance of the very person referred to; who coming up with his usual
light, alert step, held out his hand first of all to the questioner.
"Good evening, doctor!--how do you do again? Miss Faith, may I take you
away from these beauties?" And the released hand was offered to her.
She put hers in it very willingly but very silently; Faith dared not
say a word to him about the Rhododendrons or about anything else.
"Ah, you have two hands again," said Dr. Harrison, "and you turn it
against me!"
"Not that fact--" Mr. Linden said as he went off. And then slackening
his step, he talked or made Faith talk--and laugh--every inch of the
way into the room where all the rest were clustered ready for blind
man's buff. It was a triumph of his skill,--or of his power,--for she
had left the Rhododendrons in a mood most shy and quiet, and disposed
to keep so. Dr. Harrison had not followed them, but soon made his
entrance upon the company by another door.
"What is going on? or off, Mrs. Stoutenburgh?" he whispered to that
lady.
"Why the bandage is going on, and we're going off," said she laughing.
"Will you be blinded first, doctor?"
"Blind man's buff!" said the doctor shrugging his shoulders comically.
"Barbarous! I would rather 'go off' too--but anything to please you,
Mrs. Stoutenburgh. A game to see how much a man without his five senses
can do against other people who have them." But the doctor gallantly
stepped up to Mrs. Somers.
"I represent the forlorn hope for the evening, aunt Ellen. Has anybody
volunteered to be the first victim?"
"You are the last person in the room that ought to volunteer," said
Mrs. Somers,--"however, blindness is proverbial in some cases. Miss
Essie will bandage your eyes, Julius--and use her own for you in the
meanwhile, I dare say. Miss Essie, here is a candidate."
"Not for Miss Essie's good offices!" said the doctor. "I know her. I
shall not trust her. I will put myself in safe hands."
And with an inexpressible air of carelessness and easy pleasure-taking,
Dr. Harrison carried his handsome person across the room to where Faith
yet stood by the side of Mr. Linden; stood looking rather sober. She
had not brought any of the rosy Rhododendron colour away in her face;
or else it had faded. The doctor came up and spoke in an undertone as
wilfully and gracefully independent as his manner.
"If I ask you to do me the honour to put this handkerchief over my
eyes, Miss Derrick, I suppose you will not know what it signifies?"
"No, sir," said Faith, with a very slight smile and extra colour.
"Where I have been," said the doctor,--"where we never play it!--it is
played in this way. My entreating you to blind my eyes, signifies that
without them I shall endeavour to find you."
"Then I wish you'd get somebody else to do it, Dr. Harrison."
"You are not in earnest?" said the doctor.
"Very much in earnest."
"But I should observe," said he smiling, "that even the unkindness of
your refusal would not change my endeavour. I only give you, as in
honour bound, the chance of doing all you can to prevent my succeeding.
Will you do it?"
He tendered the handkerchief. Faith coloured a little more, but to put
a stop to his absurdities, as they seemed to her, and to her consequent
prominence before the eyes of people, she accepted the office. Dr.
Harrison kneeled at her feet, and Faith put the handkerchief round his
eyes and tied it on; endeavouring, to do her justice, to perform the
task thoroughly. She was not quite sure how well it was done, after
all,--for the doctor had interposed a gentle "Softly," as she was
drawing the knot and had at the same time also raised his hand to ease
the bandage. But Faith had to let it go so; and simply resolved to take
care of herself.
Many eyes, meanwhile, surveyed this performance with much edification,
glancing too at the motionless figure who at Faith's side looked down
upon it. But when the smile in those eyes touched the lips as well,
Mrs. Stoutenburgh was roused to a pitch of delight; and running into
the middle of the room to meet the doctor as he came to take his stand,
she clapped her hands exclaiming, "O, doctor! doctor!--how could you
let anybody tie anything over your eyes!"
"Is there treachery, Mrs. Stoutenburgh?" said the doctor with a comic
stop.
"Where?"--said the lady.
"Nay,--I know where," said the doctor. And turning from her he
addressed himself to the game.
But though Dr. Harrison shewed himself a keen player the game came to
no sudden termination. And Faith could not help doubting that her work
had not been too effectual. It was beyond question, even if she had not
been forewarned, that the doctor was endeavouring to find--or
endeavouring to catch her. In vain Mrs. Stoutenburgh's crimson and Miss
Essie's blue floated past him and rustled behind him. In vain Mrs.
Somers' purple stood in his way. The skirt of that one black silk could
go nowhere that some one of the doctor's senses did not inform him of
it. Closely he followed upon her flight, and keen work Faith found it,
play as well as she would. She began to get out of breath, and the
amusement and fun grew uproarious.
It was when her foot was failing that the doctor's gained strength:
between him and the prize there was now no barrier; no leap could avail
Faith in the corner where she was at last hemmed in. Slowly and
securely the doctor advanced, first himself and then his hands, and
caught--Mr Linden! Caught him unmistakeably too,--there was no help for
it; and Dr. Harrison in his astonishment forgot to pronounce him
somebody else!
"Confound you!" said the doctor slowly and comically--"how did you get
here?"
"Are you fatigued?" said Mr. Linden, taking off the bandage. "Miss
Faith, you did _this_ part of your work very ill."
"How did you get here?" repeated the doctor, taking hold of his arm and
shaking it slightly. "I wasn't looking for _you_, man."
"What were you _looking_ for?" said Mr. Linden, with a laughing return
of the doctor's gaze.
"Shall I put that on for you?" said the latter with a sort of
complicate expression, which however never lost its grace and ease. And
then began another chase--but not of Faith this time,--perhaps Mr.
Linden thought she needed rest. And the changes ran round the company,
but never (as it happened) including Faith or Dr. Harrison, until they
reached the finishing round of the game. Then it was Mr. Linden's turn
again to wear the bandage, and then he gave Faith the sort of run he
had given her before at Mrs. Stoutenburgh's--and with the same success.
"Haven't they played blind man's buff long enough?" Faith whispered,
when the bandage was taken off her captor. She was flushed, a little,
and sober more than a little.
"Yes--I will move a change," he answered in the same tone. Which he
did, after a short consultation.
"Dr. Harrison--you have seen the 'Butterfly,' I suppose?"
"_The_ butterfly?" said the doctor. "I have seen many--of all colours;
but the butterfly par excellence, I know not. Unless it is one with
white wings and black body, and spots of most brilliant red on the
breast."
"The one I mean combines more colours," said Mr. Linden. "What were you
doing in France, not to see it?"
"Seeing other things, I suppose. However, now you speak of it, I
believe that butterfly has flown over me--sometime."
"Please to imagine yourself a gay rover for the nonce," said Mr.
Linden, leading the doctor persuasively into the middle of the floor.
"Just suppose you are a Purple Emperor--will you doctor? Miss Essie
wants a story and forfeits,--I shall leave you to gratify her." But he
himself went to give Miss Faith a seat. That was done with a very
different manner from the gay, genial way in which he had addressed the
doctor: it was genial enough, certainly, but grave.
"You do not feel well?" he said, as he wheeled up an easy chair for
her. It was spoken too low for any one else to hear.
"Yes, I do,"--said Faith quickly. But her face flushed deep, and her
eye though it glanced towards him, failed timidly of meeting his; and
her voice had lost all the spring of pleasure.
"Then cannot you keep the promise you made about a disagreeable
evening?" The tone was very low still--(he was arranging her footstool
and chair) a little concerned too, a little--or Faith fancied it--but
indeed she was not quite sure what the third part was; and then the
doctor began his work.
For a minute or two she did not hear him, or heard without heed. She
was thinking over Mr. Linden's question and struggling with it. For its
slight tone, of remonstrance perhaps, only met and stirred into life
the feeling she was trying to keep down. Her lip took one of its
sorrowful curves for an instant; but then Dr. Harrison came towards
them.
"What insect on the face of the earth, Linden, will you be? What does
he resemble most, Miss Derrick?"
"I am not particular about being on the face of the earth," said Mr.
Linden,--"the air will do just as well."
The doctor was waiting for Faith's answer. Under the exigency of the
moment she gave it him, glancing up first at the figure beside her,
perhaps to refresh her memory--or imagination--and smiling a little as
she spoke.
"I don't think of any he is like, Dr. Harrison."
"Do you think I am like a purple butterfly?" said the doctor.
"Yes, a little,"--said Faith. But it was with a face of such childlike
soberness that the doctor looked hard at her.
"What do you think you are like yourself?" said he; not lightly.
"I think I am a little like an ant," said Faith.
The doctor turned half round on his heel.
"'Angels and ministers of grace'!" was his exclamation. "Most winged,
gentle, and etherial of all the dwellers in, or on, anthills,--know
that thy similitude is nothing meaner than a flower. You must take the
name of one, Miss Faith--all the ladies do--what will you be?"
"What will you be?" Mr. Linden repeated,--"Mignonette?--that is even
below the level of some of your anthills."
"If you please,"--she said.
"Or one of your Rhododendrons?" said the doctor--"that is better; for
you have the art--or the nature, indeed,--of representing all the tints
of the family by turns--except the unlovely ones. Be a Rhodora!"
"No"--said Faith--"I am not like that--nor like the other, but I will
be the other."
"Mignonette"--said the doctor. "Well, what shall we call him? what is
_he_ like?"
"I think," said Faith, looking down very gravely, not with the flashing
eye with which she would have said it another time,--"he is most like a
midge."
The little laugh which answered her, the way in which Mr. Linden bent
down and said, "How do you know, Miss Faith?" were slightly mystifying
to Dr. Harrison.
"I don't know,"--she said smiling; and the doctor with one or two looks
of very ungratified curiosity left them and returned to his post.
"What are they going to play, Mr. Linden?" said Faith. The doctor's
explanation, given to the rest generally, she had not heard.
"Do you know what a family connexion you have given me, Miss
Faith?--The proverb declares that 'the mother of mischief is no bigger
than a midge's wing.'"
An involuntary little caught breath attested perhaps Faith's
acquiescence in the truth of the proverb; but the doctor's words
prevented the necessity of her speaking.
"Miss Essie--Ladies and gentlemen! Please answer to your names, and
thereby proclaim your characters. Mrs. Stoutenburgh, what are you?"
"A poppy, I think," said Mrs. Stoutenburgh laughing. "I like to be
beforehand with the public."
"Will you please to name your lord and master? He is incapable of
naming himself."
"I think you've named him!" said Mrs. Stoutenburgh with a gay toss of
her pretty head. "I'm not learned in insects, doctor,--call him
anything that eats up butter-flies."
"Mr. Stoutenburgh will--you be a grub?" said the doctor. "Or a beetle?
I don't know anything else that I--as a butterfly--dislike more."
"No, I'll be a cricket--I'm so spry," said the Squire,--"and I'll be
down upon _you_ in some other form, doctor."
"You'll have to fly higher first," said the doctor. "Miss Essie
declares herself to be a purple Althaea. Miss Davids--an evening
primrose. Miss Deacon--a cluster rose. Miss Fax--a sweet pink. Miss
Chester--a daisy. Miss Bezac--what shall I put you down?" The butterfly
was making a list of his flowers and insects, and cards had been
furnished to the different members of the party, and pencils, to do as
much for themselves.
"I'd as lieve be balm as anything else, if I knew how," said Miss
Bezac; "but I shouldn't call _that_ putting me down."
"That fits, anyhow," said Squire Stoutenburgh.
"'Balm for hurt minds'"--said Dr. Harrison writing. "Miss Julia De
Staff is a white lily. Miss Emmons--a morning glory. Mrs. Churchill a
peony. Miss Derrick is mignonette. Mrs. Somers--?"
"I may as well be lavender," said Mrs. Somers. "You say I am in a good
state of preservation."
"What is Mr. Somers?"
"Mr. Somers--what are you?" said his wife.
"Ha!--I don't know, my dear," said Mr. Somers blandly. "I think I
am--a--out of place."
"Then you're a moth," said the doctor. "That is out of place too, in
most people's opinion. Miss Delaney, I beg your pardon--what are you?"
"Here are the two Miss Churchills, doctor," said Miss Essie--"hyacinth
and laburnum."
"I am sure you have been sponsor, Miss Essie. Well this is my garden of
flowers. Then of fellow insects I have a somewhat confused variety. Mr.
Stoutenburgh sings round his hearth in the shape of a black cricket.
Mr. Linden passes unnoticed in the invisibility of a midge--nothing
more dangerous. Mr. Somers does all the mischief he can in the way of
devouring widows' houses. The two Messrs. De Staff" (two very spruce
and moustachioed young gentlemen) "figure as wasp and snail--one would
hardly think they belonged to the same family--but there is no
accounting for these things. Mr. George Somers professes to have the
taste of a bee--but luckily the garden belongs to the butterfly."
"In other words, some one has put Dr. Harrison in a flutter," said Mrs.
Stoutenburgh.
"I haven't begun yet," said the doctor wheeling round to face her;
"when I do, my first business will be to cut you up, Mrs. Stoutenburgh."
"Miss Faith," said Mr. Linden while the roll went on, "I have not
forgotten your question,--they, and we, are going to play a French game
called 'the Butterfly and the Flowers;' wherein I, a midge, am in
humble attendance oh a sprig of mignonette. Whenever our butterfly
gardener chooses to speak the name of any flower or insect, that Flower
or insect must reply: when he speaks of the gardener, you flowers must
extend one hand in token of welcome, we insects draw back in dismay: if
the gardener brings his watering-pot, or there falls a shower of rain,
you must hold up your head for joy--I must kneel down for fear. If the
sunshine is mentioned, we are free to rejoice together--standing up and
making demonstrations. You may reply, Miss Faith, either in your own
words or quotations, so that you mention some one of your companions;
but if you fail to speak, or break any other rule, you must pay a
forfeit first and redeem it afterwards."
"I may mention either insect or flower?" said Faith.
"Yes, just what you like."
"If everybody is ready," said the doctor, "I will begin by remarking
that I find myself in an 'embarras de richesses'--so many sweets around
me that I--a butterfly--know not which to taste first; and such an
array of enemies, hostile alike to the flowers and me, that I know not
which to demolish first. I hope a demolishing rain will fall some of
these days--ah! that is gratifying! behold my enemies shrinking
already, while the flowers lift up their heads with pleasure and warm
themselves in the rays of the sun. What is mignonette doing?"
There was a general outcry of laughter, for as the gentlemen had
kneeled and bent their heads, and the flowers had risen to greet the
sun,--Faith, in her amusement and preoccupation had sat still. She rose
now, blushing a little at being called upon.
"Mignonette loves the sun without making any show for it. She has no
face to lift up like the white lily."
"The white lily isn't sweet like lavender," said Miss Julia.
"And the lavender has more to do in the linen press than among
butterflies," said Mrs. Somers.
"It is good to know one's place," said the doctor. "But the butterfly,
seeking a safe resting place, flutters with unpoised flight, past the
false poppy which flaunts its gay colours on the sight."
"And fixes its eyes on the distant gardener with his watering-pot,"
said Mrs. Stoutenburgh, stretching forth her hand, sibyl-like, towards
the now prostrate doctor,--"whereat the mignonette rejoices."
"All the flowers rejoice," said the mignonette, "and the cricket jumps
out of the way."
"Into the sunshine"--said Mr. Stoutenburgh, laughing;--"but the moth
feels doubtful."
"The moth"--said Mr. Somers--"he--don't like the sunshine so well as
the rain. He--ha--he wishes he was a midge there, to get under shelter."
"A midge _here_ he can't be," said Mr. Linden, dropping his voice for
Faith's benefit,--"'Two suns hold not their courses in one
sphere!'"--Then aloud--"Invisibility is a great thing--when you can
make up your mind to it, but 'Althaea with the purple eye' looks on
life differently."
"I look on it soberly," said Miss Essie.--
"'Flutter he, flutter he, high as he will,
A butterfly is but a butterfly still.
And 'tis better for us to remain where we are,
In the lowly valley of duty and care,
Than lonely to soar to the heights above,
Where there's nothing to do and nothing to love.'"
"I'll flutter no more! after that"--said the doctor. "I'll creep into
the heart of the white lily and beg it to shelter me."
"It won't hide you from the sun nor from the rain," said the white
lily,--"and I'd as lieve shelter a spider besides."
Faith forgot again that she must welcome the sun; but she was not the
only one who had incurred forfeits. Nor the last one who should. For
while that interesting member of society who called himself spider,
made his reply, Mr. Linden's attention naturally wandered--or came
back; and the lively dialogue which then ensued between Messrs. Snail,
Wasp, Beetle, etc. failed to arouse him to the duties of a midge or the
fear of the gardener: he forgot everything else in the pleasure of
making Mignonette laugh. Standing half before her at last, in some
animated bit of talk, more than one sunbeam and watering-pot had come
and gone, unnoticed by both midge and mignonette,--a fact of which some
other people took note, and smilingly marked down the forfeits.
"Mr. Linden"--said the voice of Miss Essie at his elbow--"do you know
what the doctor is saying?--'The mother of mischief is no bigger than a
midge's wing!' You'd better speak to him."
Mr. Linden turned, with a laughing, recollective glance--
"Who speaks slightingly of the midge?--let him have a dose of syrup of
poppies!"
"I guess you can find balm," said Mrs. Stoutenburgh gaily.
"He shall have it if he wants it," said Miss Bezac--"that is if _I_'ve
got it,--though I rather guess he's got it himself,--I'm sure I don't
know what he hasn't got. And it don't strike me he looks as if he
wanted it, either, if I _had_. But it's funny I should and not the
doctor--though to be sure most things are,--and _he_'s gone to 'the
butterfly's ball and the grasshopper's feast.'"
"The grasshopper's feast being just now announced," said Mrs. Somers
stepping forward, "I shall hope to set the flowers free from their
natural enemies without more delay."
"I shall not confess to that!" said Mr. Linden under-tone. "But will
you come, Miss Faith--the insects are all gone--
'Save the few that linger, even yet,
Round the Alyssum's tuft and the Mignonette.'"
The midge's prompt action had perhaps disappointed several other
people. Dr. Harrison at any rate contrived with Miss Essie to be the
immediately preceding couple in the walk to the supper-room.
"I'm glad of some refreshment!" said the doctor; "butterflies cannot
live on the wing. Linden! have you been singing all the evening, in the
character of a midge?"
"No," said Mr. Linden--"all the singing I have done has been in my own
character."
"I am glad to hear it. By the way," said Dr. Harrison as they reached
the supper-room and paired off from their respective charges,--"I am
sorry to hear that Pattaquasset has no hold on you, Linden."
"Indeed?" said Mr. Linden,--an "indeed" which might refer to the
doctor's sorrow, or the supposed fact.
"Nay I know nothing about it!" said the doctor lightly as he attacked
the supper-table--"but Miss Derrick tells me it is true that your heart
is in another place."
"Dr. Harrison!" Mr. Linden said, with a momentary erectness of
position. But he said no more; turning off then towards Faith with her
oysters. And the gentle respect and quick attention with which she was
served, Faith might feel, and take note of--yet not guess that its
peculiar tone this night was warring, hand to hand, with the injustice
done her name. The doctor had unwittingly betrayed at least one point
of talk held over the Rhododendrons--furnished a clue he dreamed not
of; and stirred a power of displeasure which perhaps he thought Mr.
Linden did not possess.
Faith did not indeed guess anything from the manner of the latter to
her, although she felt it; she felt it as his own, kind and watchful
and even affectionate; but like him, belonging to him, and therefore
not telling upon the question. With a very humbled and self-chiding
spirit, she was endeavouring to keep the face and manner which suited
the place, above a deep sinking of heart which was almost overcoming.
Her success was like the balance of her mind--doubtful. Gentle her face
was as ever; all the crosses of the evening had not brought an angle
there; but it was shadowed beyond the fitness of things; and she was
still and retiring so far as it was possible to be, shrinking into a
very child's lowness of place.
Ladies were in the majority that night and the gentlemen were obliged
to be constantly on the move. In one of the minutes when Faith was
alone, Mrs. Stoutenburgh came up.
"Faith," she whispered, "have you been doing anything to vex my friend?"
Faith started a little, with a sort of shadow of pain crossing her face.
"Who is your friend, Mrs. Stoutenburgh?"
"Hush, child!" she answered--"_your_ friend, if you like it better."
And she added softly but seriously, "Don't vex him,--he doesn't deserve
it."
Faith's lip was that touchingly sorrowful child's lip for an instant.
She was beyond speaking. Then came up help, in the shape of Miss Essie;
with questions about the forfeits and about Mr. Linden. All Mrs.
Stoutenburgh's kindness made itself into a screen for Faith, on the
instant,--neither eyes nor tongues were allowed to come near her.
"Mr. Linden!" said Miss Essie as he just then came up, "will you help
us give out forfeits? Who do you think is best to do it?"
"Mr. Linden," said Mrs. Somers, "we are all very anxious to know
whether all the reports about you are true."
Mr. Linden bowed to the anxiety, but gave it no further heed.
"Are they?" she repeated.
"Do all the reports agree, Mrs. Somers?"
"I must confess they are at swords' points."
"Then they cannot all be true,--let them fight it out."
"But suppose some of the fighting should come upon you?"
"That is a supposition I have just refused to take up," said Mr.
Linden, stepping towards the table and bringing a bunch of grapes to
Faith's plate.
"Yes, but everybody hasn't the patience of Job," said Mrs. Somers.
"Julius, for instance."
"He has at least his own ways of obtaining information," said Mr.
Linden, and Faith felt the slight change of voice. "Miss Essie, what
will you have?"
"Has the doctor any forfeits to pay?" was the somewhat irrelevant
answer. "I should so like to see you two set against each other! Dr.
Harrison!--have you any forfeits?"
"No," said the doctor;--"but as severe service to perform as if I had.
Linden, we shall want your help--it's too much for one man."
Faith edged away behind this growing knot of talkers, and presently was
deeply engaged in conversation with Miss Cecilia Deacon, at a table in
the corner, and alternating her attention between grapes and words.
Then Squire Stoutenburgh walked softly up and stood behind Faith's
chair.
"My dear, will you have anything more?"
"No, sir, thank you."
"Then I am going to carry you off!" said the Squire,--"if I wait a
quarter of a second more I shall lose my chance. Come!"
Faith was very willing to come, indeed; and they went back to the
drawing-room, all the company pouring after them; and Faith feeling as
if she had got under a kind of lee shore, on Mr. Stoutenburgh's arm. It
could not shelter her long, for the forfeits began.
The doctor and Mr. Linden, with Miss Essie and Mrs. Stoutenburgh for
coadjutors, were constituted the awarding committee; and the forfeits
were distributed to them indifferently. There were many to be redeemed;
and at first there was a crowd of inferior interest, Messrs. Spider and
Wasp, Mesdemoiselles White Lily and Cluster rose; who were easily
disposed of and gallantly dismissed. But there were others behind. One
of Faith's forfeits came up; it was held by Dr. Harrison.
"Please to stand forth, Miss Derrick, and hear your sentence," said the
doctor, leading her to a central position in the floor; which Faith
took quietly, but with what inward rebellion one or two people could
somewhat guess.
"Have the goodness to state to the company what you consider to be the
most admirable and praiseworthy of all the characters of flowers within
your knowledge; and to describe the same, that we may judge of the
justness of your opinion."
"Describe the character?" said Faith in a low voice.
"Yes. If you please."
She stood silent a moment, with downcast eyes, and did not raise them
when she spoke. Her colour was hardly heightened, and though her voice
rose little above its former pitch, its sweet accents were perfectly
audible everywhere. The picture would have been enough for her forfeit.
"The prettiest character of a flower that I know, is that of a little
species of Rhododendron. It is one of the least handsome, to look at,
of all its family; its beauty is in its living. It grows on the high
places of high mountains, where frost and barrenness give it no help
nor chance; but there, where no other flower ever blossoms, it opens
its flowers patiently and perseveringly; and its flowers are very
sweet. Nothing checks it nor discourages it. As soon as the great cold
lets it come, it comes; and as long as the least mildness lets it stay,
it stays. Amidst snow and tempest and desolation it opens its blossoms
and spreads its sweetness, with nobody to see it nor to praise it;
where from the nature of the place it lives in, its work is all alone.
For no other flower will bear what it bears.--Will that do?" said
Faith, looking up gravely at her questioner.
Very gently, very reverently even, he took her hand, put it upon his
arm and led her to a seat, speaking as he went low words of gratified
pardon asking. "You must forgive me!" he said. "Forfeits must be
forfeits, you know. I couldn't resist the temptation."
"Now wasn't that pretty?" whispered Miss Essie in the mean time in Mr.
Linden's ear.
He had listened, leaning against the mantelpiece, and with shaded eyes
looking down; and now to Miss Essie's question returned only a grave
bend of the head.
"If you have been looking at the floor all this while, you have lost
something," said the lady. "Do you know your turn comes next? Mr.
Linden--ladies and gentlemen!--is condemned to tell us what he holds
the most precious thing in this world; and to justify himself in his
opinion by an argument, a quotation, and an illustration!"--
"Now will he find means to evade his sentence!" said Mrs. Stoutenburgh
laughing.
"He has confessed himself addicted to witchcraft in my hearing," said
the doctor, who had remained standing by Faith's chair.
"The most precious thing in the world," said Mr. Linden, in a tone as
carelessly graceful as his attitude, "is that which cannot be
bought,--for if money could buy it, then were money equally valuable.
Take for illustration, the perfection of a friend."
"_I_ don't understand,"--said Miss Essie; "but perhaps I shall when I
hear the rest."
He smiled a little and gave the quotation on that point in his own
clear and perfect manner.
"'A sweet, attractive kind of grace;
A full assurance given by looks;
Continual comfort in a face;
The lineaments of gospel books,--
I trow that countenance cannot lye
Whose thoughts are legible in the eye.'"
The quotation was received variously, but in general with vast
admiration. Miss Essie turned to Mrs. Stoutenburgh and remarked, half
loud,
"_That's_ easy to understand. I was dull."
"What do you think of it?" said the doctor softly, stooping towards
Faith. But if she heard she did not answer him. She sat with downcast
eyes that did not move. She had been wondering whether that was a
description of "Pet,"--or of somebody else.
"Faith," whispered Mrs. Stoutenburgh's kind mischievous voice in her
ear,--"in whose face do you suppose he finds 'continual comfort'?" But
she was sorry the next instant, for the pained, startled look which
flashed up at her. Sorry and yet amused--the soft little kiss on
Faith's cheek was smiling although apologetic.
"Mr. Linden," said the doctor, who held the bag of forfeits,--"it is
your duty to punish Miss Essie with some infliction, such as you can
devise."
"Miss Essie," said Mr. Linden, walking gravely up to her, "if there is
any person in this room towards whom you entertain and practise
malicious, mischievous, and underhand designs, you are hereby sentenced
to indicate the person, declare the designs, and to 'shew cause.'"
"Why I never did in my life!" said Miss Essie, with a mixture of
surprise and amusement in her gracious black eyes.
"The court is obliged to refuse an unsupported negative," said Mr.
Linden bowing.
"Well," said Miss Essie, with no diminishing of the lustre of her black
orbs,--"I had a design against you, sir!"
"Of what sort?" said Mr. Linden with intense gravity, while everybody
else laughed in proportion.
"I had a design to enter your mind by private fraud, and steal away its
secrets;--and the reason was, because the door was so terribly strong
and had such an uncommon good lock! and I couldn't get in any other
way."
"I hope that is news to the rest of the company," said Mr. Linden
laughing as he bowed his acknowledgments. "It is none to me! Miss
Essie, may your shadow never be less!"--
"Aint you ashamed!" said Miss Essie reproachfully. "Didn't such a
confession deserve better? Who's next, Mr. Harrison?"
Some unimportant names followed, with commonplace forfeits according;
then Faith's name came to Mr. Linden. Then was there an opening of eyes
and a pricking of ears of all the rest of the company. Only Faith
herself sat as still as a mouse, after one little quick glance over to
where the person stood in whose hands she was. He stood looking at
her,--then walked with great deliberation across the room to her low
seat, and taking both her hands lifted her up.
"You need not be frightened," he said softly, as keeping one hand in
his clasp he led her back to where he had been standing; then placed
her in a great downy easy chair in that corner of the fireplace, and
drew up a footstool for her feet.
"Miss Faith," he said, "you are to sit there in absolute silence for
the next fifteen minutes. If anybody speaks to you, you are not to
answer,--if you are longing to speak yourself you must wait. It is also
required that you look at nobody, and hear as little as possible." With
which fierce sentence, Mr. Linden took his stand by the chair to see it
enforced.
"What a man you are!" said Mrs. Stoutenburgh laughing.
"That's not fair play!" said Mrs. Somers. "She don't want to sit
there--if you think she does, you're mistaken."
"She should have been more careful then," said Mr. Linden. "Dr.
Harrison, you have the floor."
Dr. Harrison did not appear to think that was much of a possession;--to
judge by his face, which cast several very observant glances towards
the chair, and by his manner which for a moment was slightly abstracted
and destitute of the spirit of the game. Miss Essie's eyes took the
same direction, with a steady gaze which the picture justified. Faith
sat where she had been placed, in most absolute obedience to the orders
she had received,--except possibly--not probably--the last one. The
lids drooped over her eyes, which moved rarely from the floor, and
never raised themselves. Her colour had risen indeed to a rich tint,
where it stayed; but Mrs. Somers' declaration nevertheless was hardly
borne out by a certain little bit-in smile which lurked there too,
spite of everything. Otherwise she sat like an impersonation of
silence, happily screened, by not looking at anybody, from any
annoyance of the eyes that were levelled at her and at the figure that
held post by her side.
"Mrs. Stoutenburgh," said the doctor, "you have my aunt Ellen."
Mrs. Stoutenburgh however was lenient in that quarter, and told Mrs.
Somers they would require nothing of her but the three last items of
Pattaquasset news--which she, as pastor's wife, was bound to know. And
Mrs. Somers was not backward in declaring them; the first being the
engagement of two people who hated each other, the second the
separation of two people who loved each other; the third, that Mr.
Linden shot himself--to make a sensation.
"Mr. Linden," said the doctor, "you come next--and you are mine. What
shall I do with you?"
"Why--anything," said Mr. Linden.
"Well--I am greatly at a loss what you are good for," said the doctor
lightly,--"but on the whole I order you to preach a sermon to the
company."
"Have you any choice as to the text?"
"I am not in the way of those things," said the doctor laughingly.
"Give us the lesson you think we want most."
The clear, grave look that met him--Dr. Harrison had seen it before.
The change was like the parting of a little bright vapour, revealing
the steadfast blue beneath.
"Nay doctor, you must bid me do something else! I dare not play at
marbles with precious stones."
There was probably a mixture of things in the doctor's mind;--but the
outward show in answer to this was in the highest degree seemly and
becoming. The expression of Dr. Harrison's face changed; with a look
gentle and kind, even winning, he came up to Mr. Linden's side and took
his hand.
"You are right!" said he, "and I have got my sermon--which I deserve.
But now, Linden, _that_ is not your forfeit;--for that you must tell
me--honestly--what you think of me." There was always a general air of
carelessness about Dr. Harrison, as to what he said himself or what
others said in his presence. Along with this carelessness, which
whether seeming or real was almost invariable, there mingled now a
friend's look and tone and something of a friend's apology making.
"But do you want me to tell everybody else?" said Mr. Linden, smiling
in his old way at the doctor. "Do you like to blush before so many
people?"
"That's your forfeit!" said the doctor resuming also his old-fashioned
light tone. "You're to tell me--and you are _not_ to tell anybody else!"
"Well--if you will have it," said Mr. Linden looking at
him,--"Honestly, I think you are very handsome!--of course that is news
to nobody but yourself."
"Mercy on you, man!" said the doctor; "do you think that is news to
_me?_"
"It is supposed to be--by courtesy," said Mr. Linden laughing.
"Well--give me all the grace courtesy will let you," said the doctor;
whether altogether lightly, or with some feeling, it would have been
hard for a by-stander to tell. "Is Miss Derrick's penance out? She
comes next--and Miss Essie has her."
"No,"--said Mr. Linden consulting his watch. "I am sorry to interfere
with your arrangements, doctor, but justice must have its course."
"Then there is a 'recess'"--said the doctor comically. "Ladies and
gentlemen--please amuse yourselves."--
He had no intention of helping them, it seemed, for he stood fast in
his place and talked to Mr. Linden in a different tone till the minutes
were run out. No thing could be more motionless than the occupant of
the chair.
"Miss Faith," Mr. Linden said then, "it is a little hard to pass from
one inquisitor to another--but I must hand you over to Miss Essie."
Faith's glance at him expressed no gratification. Meanwhile the doctor
had gone for Miss Essie and brought her up to the fireplace.
"Miss Derrick," said the black-eyed lady, "I wish you to tell--as the
penalty of your forfeit--why, when you thought the Rhododendron the
most perfect flower, you did not take it for your name?"
If anybody had known the pain this question gave Faith--the leap of
dismay that her heart made! Nobody knew it; her head drooped, and the
colour rose again to be sure; but one hand sheltered the exposed cheek
and the other was turned to the fire. She could not refuse to answer,
and with the doctor's weapons she would not; but here, as once before,
Faith's straightforwardness saved her.
"Why didn't you call yourself Rhodora?" repeated Miss Essie. And Faith
answered,--
"Because another name was suggested to me."
The question could not decently be pushed any further; and both Miss
Essie and the doctor looked as if they had failed. Faith's own tumult
and sinking of heart prevented her knowing how thoroughly this was true.
"And you two people," said Mr. Linden, "come and ask Miss Derrick why
she chose to appropriate a character that she thought fell short of
perfection!--what is the use of telling anybody anything, after that?"
"I am only one people," said Miss Essie.
"I am another," said the doctor; "and I confess myself curious.
Besides, a single point of imperfection might be supposed, without
injury to mortal and human nature."
"Julius," said Miss Harrison, "will you have the goodness to do so
impolite a thing as to look at your watch? Aunt Ellen will expect us to
set a proper example. Dear Faith, are you bound to sit in that big
chair all night?"
Then there was a general stir and break-up of the party. One bit of
conversation Faith was fated to hear as she slowly made her way out of
the dressing-room door, among comers and goers: the first speaker was a
young De Staff.
"Since that shooting affair there's been nothing but reports about you,
Linden."
"Reports seldom kill," said Mr. Linden.
"Don't trust to that!" said another laughing moustache,--"keep 'em this
side the water. By the way--is there any likeness of that fair
foreigner going? How do you fancy _she_ would like reports?"
"When you find out I wish you would let me know," said Mr. Linden with
a little accent of impatience, as he came forward and took Faith in
charge.