THE LEAVE-TAKING.
There were lively times in the Portsea lodging-house, next morning.
The many last small tasks that crowd upon the out-going voyager had
kept even Hope too busy to talk much, and she at length stopped
breathlessly, to cry, as she jammed her dressing-sacque and tooth-brush
into an already over-crowded bag,
"Dear me! Faith, have you a spot for my hair-brush? It won't fold up
nor crush down, and this crocodile is just gorged. I don't know that I
can ever snap his jaws to in the world!"
Faith looked and smiled an assent.
"Toss it over! If your alligator-grip is full I can find room in this
telescope, but I hope it won't break my scent bottle."
"Oh, alligator--yes, but what's the difference? The creatures look
alike in the pictures, I'm sure. That's a darling! Now, if I can ever
find the eye for this hook--oh, thank you! How calm you are. Why, my
hands fairly shake with nervousness. Now I believe I'm ready."
"I too," returned Faith, taking up her gloves and smiling at Deborah,
who just then opened the door, displaying eyes swollen with weeping and
cap awry, and who observed sobbingly,
"The new lady--Mrs. Rollston--is below, and asked if you was gone. I
thowt as likely she was a-wantin' to see you again, if you don't mind,
though she didn't really ask for you. Will you be pleased to come
down?"
"Yes indeed!" cried Hope. "Where _did_ I put that umbrella? Oh, I
remember! It's tied to the steamer trunk. We may as well take our
luggage all down, as we go so soon."
"Yes," said Faith, who had already lifted the telescope and a linen
rug-holder, embroidered with her initials, and calmly sailed out, while
Hope buzzed aimlessly about, picking up sundry small belongings, during
which time Debby shouldered her heavier packages and followed. The
girls allowed no dissimilarity in their costumes, to the smallest
detail, but for convenience' sake had selected their traps and luggage
as unlike as possible. When Hope reached the drawing-room Mrs.
Rollston was making to Faith a half-apology for her early visit.
"I knew, if I could time my call exactly right, I would not bother you.
There is always a breathing-space while waiting for the cab, and--"
"And you have exactly hit it!" broke in Hope, coming forward to give
her greeting, as Faith turned away. "We are pleased to meet you again."
"Thank you. I find myself, in my idle time here, waiting upon my
husband's business, taking more interest than is perhaps strictly
allowable in you both. Can you pardon me?"
"Freely," said Faith, "and we return it. Hope and I had a smart
discussion over you, last night. She says you are an American."
"Does she?" turning swiftly to the sister. "What makes you think so,
Miss Hope?"
"Your manner, your dress, and your accent," was the prompt reply though
the girl flushed a little in embarrassment.
"But how do you young English girls so well understand these points of
difference when--"
"Oh, but we're not English girls!" cried Hope.
"That is, not entirely," qualified Faith. "Our mother was English--"
"But our father's American!" Hope finished the sentence with a
triumphant air, and her visitor laughed.
"You seem proud of it, too," she said.
"I am. Faith does not care so much, but I'm very glad it is so. We
went across with father and Debby once, and stayed a year. It was such
a pleasant time! Father's people live in an old town they call
Lynn--such a pretty, shady place, with a drowsy air that wakes into
real life two or three times a day, when the factory people stream
through the streets--for you see they make shoes there."
"Do they?" asked the lady with a peculiar smile, as if this were not
great news to her.
"Yes. Uncle Albert's house, where we lived, was almost hidden beneath
great elm trees, and he and Aunt Clarice were so good to us."
"And we kept bees," put in Faith, looking exactly like her twin in her
sudden animation. "I used to help uncle swarm them myself."
"And we went down to Boston every few weeks," Hope crowded in again,
"and that was fine. I love Boston. Its narrow, crooked streets make
me think of our own Portsmouth, here, but with a difference. And oh!
the gardens, and the Common, and the Museum--"
"The cab's at the dure," announced Debby in an abused voice, feeling
that this lively talk was scarce seemly in view of the near separation
to follow. Debby cherished grief, and felt it a Christian duty to make
much of it, perhaps because her sunny nature would of itself throw it
off too lightly.
At her word all was quickly changed. The two girls forgot the strange
woman to hug the dear old nurse, and finally were escorted by both to
the cab door, Hope crying heartily, Faith showing only misty eyes and
quivering lips, but looking paler than her sister.
It had been arranged that Captain Hosmer, whose business had kept him
with his steamer overnight, should meet his daughters at the pier, and
the cabman had his directions, so whipped up and was off without delay,
leaving poor Debby almost a senseless heap upon the door-step--an
old-fashioned green door on a retired street in the more ancient part
of the suburb--while Mrs. Rollston, in some dismay, bent over her.
But before the house disappeared from view Faith's straining eyes saw
the two slowly mounting the steps together and turned in great content
to say, "I'm glad that friendly lady is to be at Debby's. She has just
helped the poor dear up the steps as kindly as possible. Poor Debby!
She will miss us."
"Yes." Hope's quick tears were already somewhat stayed, and she now
looked brightly out, as they clattered across the bridge into the town
of Portsmouth proper and began to circle swiftly through the narrow
streets.
"But she will feel better in a day or two. And oh! Faith, I can't help
being glad that we are going, can you? We leave Debby, but we go with
father, and such a fine voyage is enough to make any one happy. Ought
we to feel all sorry?"
"No, indeed! Why should we? As you say, we are to go with our father.
That alone is a great delight."
"And, by the way, that lady never told us whether she was American, or
not, did she?"
"Sure enough! Well, we may never see her again, so what does it
matter? I hope we will, though, for I liked her."
"And so did I," was Hope's emphatic rejoinder.
Captain Hosmer opened the cab door for them himself, and gave them the
gaze of wondering approval which he reserved for these fair daughters.
To him their growth, development, and beauty seemed something magical,
incomprehensible. He had left them in the lank, homely, tooth-shedding
period, at the time he placed them in school, and when he returned to
see them graduated, here were two blooming maidens on the very
borderland of charming womanhood. The usual love and pride of a father
was in him a rapture made up of the love given to his very own, and
also of the admiration that a man, little thrown among women, is apt to
feel for those of his fireside. Then, too, these were the relics of a
wife most fondly cherished, and he constantly saw in them traits and
expressions which brought her to mind, and filled his heart with
tenderness.
They, in turn, fairly adored the tall, brawny man, whose whole bearing
bespoke self-restraint, and the calm exercise of authority, and if his
attitude towards them was both chivalrous and tender, theirs to him was
fondly admiring and respectful.
"I've been waiting for you ten minutes," he said, flinging his cigar
away. Then he beckoned to a sailor who, cap in hand, stood by, and
giving him a low order, led the girls off at a brisk pace, saying,
"Jack will see to your luggage; I've something to show you before we
leave."
With one on either arm he walked them rapidly among the bales, boxes,
cordage, wagons, lumber, and people crowding the wharf, then turned
abruptly townwards, entered a short, lane-like street, and finally
stopped at a low, quaint-looking old shop, leaning in a tired manner
against a larger building beyond, thus throwing its doors and windows
into such oblique angles that Hope declared it made her feel dizzy. A
little dark man--doubtless to match the little dark house--bowed with
much suavity in the doorway, as if expecting them, and the captain at
once addressed him.
"Here we are, Beppo! Bring them along, and be quick about it." But,
though his words were commanding, his eyes twinkled at the man, who,
ducking his black head once more, disappeared within.
The girls peered into the doorway, from which issued a by-no-means
agreeable odor, and their father asked, laughingly.
"Shall we go in?"
"I think not," said Faith, holding her handkerchief to her dainty
little nose, "but what are those queer--why!" She jumped and caught at
her father, for some one had seemed to ask in a gruff voice, right at
her ear, "What d'ye want?"
Her father laughed outright.
"Scared you, eh? Look out, Hope!" for the latter had stepped inside.
She answered merrily.
"Oh, Faith, come! What you heard was a parrot. And there are a lot of
birds--oh! and cats--such queer ones. Do come and see."
But at this minute, from some inner apartment Beppo reappeared, a cage
in either hand. In one perched a parrot of gorgeous plumage, in the
other crouched a beautiful Angora cat, large and tawny, its great brush
of a tail curled disconsolately about its ears.
"What a lovely kitten!" cried Faith, "and so frightened. Poor, poor
Pussy!"
"And such a saucy parrot!" chimed in Hope. "Isn't it handsome, though?"
"He talka--oh, mocha he talka," observed Beppo, holding the cages on
high with a prideful air. "An' he pussa ver' fine, yes."
"Well, girls, which do you like the better?" said the captain. "I know
it's the thing to give presents to out-going travelers, and I want to
do everything shipshape. But flowers are a nuisance the second day
out, and fruit a drug, so I thought a pet was the thing. It's only to
decide which it shall be."
"Oh, if we can't have both, do let's take the parrot; don't you say so,
Faith?"
"Why, if you wish it, of course, dear, but"--her gaze rested
lingeringly upon the other cage.
"But you want the Persian cat, I see, daughter," put in the captain.
"Well, well, let's have both, Beppo. We'll find some place to stow
'em, no doubt. Have you somebody by to carry them to the steamer?"
"Me go," cried the man, grinning broadly in delight over this trade,
"me vife she stay--me go."
"But couldn't I carry the poor kitten in my arms, she seems to feel
being a prisoner so?" asked Faith, distressed for the pet she loved
already.
"He might scratch you," said the captain, but Beppo shook his head.
"Noa, noa, he gooda; but he getta waya. Dis safa. Betta go cagea."
"Drat the cage!" shouted a hoarse voice, and Faith nearly fell over
backwards, while Hope danced up and down in merry laughter.
"It's my parrot! Oh, father, _does_ he swear? What will we do with
him?"
The captain was silently shaking with merriment, but drew himself
together and turned sternly to the man. "Beppo, you declared that was
a refined, clean-talking bird--now, didn't you? I told you it was for
a young lady."
The man's face fell and he broke into profuse apologies, which grew
more unintelligible as they increased in vehemence. Out of it all they
managed to gather that this was the parrot's worst expression, and only
lately learned of a "badda carpentiera," who had found difficulty in
fashioning the wooden cage he was making, and had used "badda wodda" in
consequence. Hope could scarcely wait till he had finished to cry,
anxiously,
"But, father, it isn't a real swear-word, now, is it? And anyhow we
can teach him to do better. Do, _do_ let me have him!"
Her father gave her a merry glance.
"They say some women really like to hear a man use strong
expressions--now, it can't be you are like that--or is it that you want
somebody to reform, eh? However, if you can stand it I can--sailors
have to get used to such things. I can't say I've ever found it really
necessary to swear though, as some of them maintain. I can do a
considerable amount of ordering in the worst storm going, and remember
to rule my tongue as well as my crew. In fact, I won't have anything
of the kind aboard, so, my dear, if your bird begins by breaking my
rules, what then?"
"I shall teach him better. Parrots say what they are taught, and if he
does not hear it, he won't talk it."
"Well, then, if you'll take him in hand--come on, Beppo, we must be
moving," and the little procession began its march.
Faith drew a long breath of relief.
"Well," she remarked, with a dainty lifting of the brows that always
made the captain think of his girl-wife, so long lost to him, "I'm
decidedly grateful that my cat cannot talk. He won't be able to
disgrace us, at least."