A VISION
Hugh Montfort was having a delightful morning. He had been at Fernley
three days now, and already knew every nook and corner on the place.
With his uncle's consent he had appropriated for his own use the little
summer-house, covered with clematis and York and Lancaster roses, that
looked out over the south wall of the garden, and away toward the sea.
Here he had brought his desk (an old one belonging to his father, that
Margaret had found in the garret), and had tacked up a shelf for a few
favorite books; and here he was sitting, on the fairest of June days,
with a volume of Greek plays open before him, considering the landscape,
and enjoying himself thoroughly.
Hugh was no less delighted with his uncle and cousin than they with him.
Always and necessarily a student and observer rather than a man of
action, he felt an instant sympathy with the man and woman of books and
thought. He loved dearly his own family, active, strenuous people,
overflowing with strength and energy; but he often felt himself out of
place among them, and reproached himself with the frequent languor and
headache that so often kept him from sharing in their full-throated,
whole-hearted mirth. He had graduated from a Western university, and was
now going to study for a post-graduate degree at Harvard; he was tired,
and the quiet at Fernley, the sense of perfect congeniality with his
uncle, and Margaret's serene face and musical, even-toned voice, were
like balm to his over-strung nerves.
This morning his head ached, and he did not feel like study. The book
open before him gave him a kind of moral support, but he did hardly more
than glance at it from time to time. His eyes roved far and wide over
the lovely prospect that lay outside, broad stretches of sunny, rolling
meadows, dotted with clumps of trees, and framed in the arched opening
of the summer-house. This summer-house had been a favorite playhouse of
his father and uncles in their boyhood. He knew a dozen stories about
it; and now his eyes turned to the lattice walls, carved everywhere with
the familiar initials, and the devices of the four brothers Montfort:
John's egg and Jim's oyster, Roger's book and Dick's ship. What glorious
boys they must have been! This was where they used to play Curtius, and
Monte Cristo, and all manner of games; leaping over the wall into the
meadow below, deep in fern and daisies, or swinging themselves down by
the hanging branches of the old willow that peeped round one side of the
arch. Glorious boys! And then Hugh thought of his own brothers, and said
"Good old Jim!" under his breath.
Thus musing, he was aware of a voice under his latticed bower, as of
some one in the meadow below; a woman's voice, calm and melodious as
Margaret's own, but with a deeper and graver note in it.
"What did he want then, a Lovely Person? Did he want her to love him?
Well, she did, ardently; so that is all right."
A rustling followed, and the voice spoke again:
"No, he mustn't kiss her; that is not permitted. He may lie at her feet,
and gaze at her with his large, brown eyes, Philip her King, but no
kissing. She is surprised at his suggesting such a thing."
Hugh sat mute, in great perplexity. What interview was this, at which he
was unwillingly assisting? Were two rustic lovers below, taking their
ease under the old willow, whose twisted roots made an admirable seat,
as he knew? And, if so, should he be guilty of the greater offence by
keeping still, or by going away? He knew every board in the summer-house
floor, and there was not one that would not betray him with a loud
creak; on the whole, it seemed best to sit still; after all, they need
never know that any one was there. Hark! the young woman--the voice was
certainly young--was speaking again:
"He was perfectly beautiful, that was what he was. Yes! he had the
loveliest eyes in the world, without any exception; and his ears were a
dream of perfection, and, as for his coat and waistcoat, words fail her
to describe them. Now if he will sit still, she will tell him
something; no, not on her dress; a little farther off, a precious
Poppet!"
A curious sound followed; something between a loud sneeze and an equally
loud yawn, accompanied with lively and prolonged rustling of the willow
branches; but no articulate word from her companion. She seemed
satisfied, however, for she went on,--a delightful quality of voice;
Hugh felt it creeping in his ears like music:
"That is right. Yes, she understands perfectly; she knows all about it,
and she loves him to distraction. Well, Lovely One, that Lady is a Cat;
that is what she is."
Another sneeze and yawn, louder than before.
"Precisely; you think so, too. A cat! 'cat, puss, tit, grimalkin, tabby,
brindle; whoosh!' was he fond of Dickens, a Pink-nosed Pearl? She is no
more sick than you are, Beloved. She has been, no doubt, and now she has
forgotten how to be anything else, but she is liable to find out. Your
Aunt, beloved, proposes to put this lady through a Course of Sprouts.
Tu-whit! your Aunt has spoken. We may also remark, in this connection
only, tu-whoo!"
Her companion's only reply to this speech was a loud breathing, which
might be caused by emotion, or by heat and fatigue; at all events, he
did not seem inclined to speak. A thought flashed through Hugh's
mind,--the man might be a deaf-mute. What a terrible affliction! It was
bad enough to be lame; but to be deaf, and in company with a girl with a
voice like that! Hark! she was speaking again, slowly and meditatively,
rather as if talking to herself than to some one else:
"Your Aunt has not got her plan entirely laid out yet. She knows what
must finally happen: the patient must be got out of that house, and away
on a sea-voyage; but there will have to be various occurrences first.
Your Aunt's ingenuity, Adonis, will be put to a severe strain. At
present your Aunt is alone, and in difficulties. Many oxen come about
her, fat bulls of Bashan compass her on every side, as the Scripture
hath it; you are not acquainted with the Scripture, Adonis, so there is
no earthly use in your putting on that look of keen intelligence. But
there may be balm in Gilead; I think Gilead may be in this very place
above our head, my Popolorum Tibby. Now, what is the matter with him?"
At this moment a sound was heard,--a bark, distant at first, but coming
momently nearer; a loud, joyous, inquiring bark. It was answered from
below by a sound combining bark, sneeze, and snort; there was a violent
shaking of the branches, and, next moment, a brown and white setter
sprang out from under the wall, and stood at gaze. Another instant, and
a second dog, his exact image, appeared on the brow of the slope,
careering toward him. There was a rapturous duet of barking and
sneezing, and then the two swept away over the brow, and were gone.
"That is the most heartless puppy I ever saw," the voice said, slowly.
"A woodchuck, I suppose. 'Twas ever thus. The moral is, don't make love
to strange puppies, however beautiful; but he was lovely, and he
understood me. No more of him! The question is, what should I find at
the top of this beanstalk--I should say, willow-tree? There is
an--answer to--every question--if--you only ask it--quick enough!"
The last words were spoken so low that Hugh did not catch their import.
Alarmed, however, by the continued rustling of the willow branches, he
rose hurriedly to his feet, and was about to steal away as quietly as
might be; but at that moment a hand was laid on the coping of the
wall,--a brown hand, slender but muscular; the next moment an arm
followed, and a young woman swung herself across the opening, and,
leaning on the wall, looked full in his face.
It was the vision of an instant only; the lithe figure, the face full of
careless power, the deep-set blue eyes, startling into black as they met
his, while the slender brows met above them in angry amazement; then one
hand reached back to the willow branch, the girl dropped from sight, and
he heard her rustle from branch to branch, and then heard the light,
swift sound of running feet through the fern, and dying away in the
distance.
* * * * *
"Is this a pleasant neighborhood, Margaret?" asked Hugh, as they sat on
the verandah after dinner. "Have you any pleasant--a--friends, of your
own age?"
"None of my own age," said Margaret. "Indeed, our only near neighbor is
Mrs. Peyton, an invalid lady, whom I go to see quite often. She is very
charming, but--no, there is no one else; the places are large and
scattered, you see, all about here. The next one on the other side
belongs to Miss Desmond, and she is always abroad, and has not been here
at all since I have."
"You don't think she may have returned lately, without your knowing it?"
"No, I am sure she cannot; I heard of her only a few days ago, in Egypt;
Uncle John had a letter from her. Why do you ask, Hugh?"
"Oh--idle curiosity; or curiosity, whether idle or not. And--there are
no other young girls?"
"None; that is why I missed Peggy and Rita so terribly, as I was telling
you last night. Then the dear children came, and they were my comfort
and joy; I shall have them again when the summer is over; happy day it
will be when they come back. But, you see, having first the girls and
then the children has rather spoiled Uncle John and me, and that is why
it was so very particularly nice of you to come, Cousin Hugh."
"Suppose we drop the 'cousin,' and be just Hugh and Margaret?" suggested
her cousin. "I am used to having sisters about me, you know, and don't
know how to get along without them; some day it may be 'Sister
Margaret.' Should you mind?"
Margaret colored high with pleasure, and again the foolish tears came
into her eyes. "I have wanted a brother all my life!" she said, simply;
and again Hugh's smile told her that he understood all about it. He was
certainly a most wonderful person.
They sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes; then--"I did not tell
the exact truth," said Margaret, "when I said there were no young people
here. Just now it happens there is one, a newcomer, a girl of my own
age."
She paused. "Yes?" said Hugh, suggestively. "Some one you know?"
"Yes--and no! I have met her once. She is a Miss Wolfe, who has come to
be a sort of companion to Mrs. Peyton. A singular-looking girl, with a
most interesting face. I want to see her again; and yet,--somehow,--I am
rather afraid of her."
"Is she formidable, this she-wolf?"
"Not formidable, but--well, I don't know how to describe her. She
impresses me as different from anybody I have ever seen. Wild is not the
word; Rita was wild, but it was something totally different."
"Peggy is wild, too," said Hugh, "wild as a mountain goat, or was,
before you took her in hand, Margaret. Is this young lady like Peggy?"
"Oh, not in the very least. She is not shy, not a bit; not shy, and yet
not bold. She seems simply absolutely without self-consciousness; it is
as if she said and did exactly what she felt like doing, with no thought
as to whether it was--well, customary or not. I am afraid I am rather
conventional, Cousin--I mean Hugh; not in thought, I hope, but--in
temperament, perhaps. This girl strikes me very strangely; that is the
only way I can describe her. Yet she attracted me strongly, the only
time I saw her, which was the very day you came, by the way. I ought to
have gone over to see her before this. I think I will go this evening,
while you and Uncle John are having your after-supper smoke."
"I think I would," said Hugh Montfort.