A FRESH START
When Olwen came into her room that evening to prepare for supper, Sunia
was curled up as usual upon the rug before the fire, mending some tiny
rent in one of the young lady's garments. The room was now always warm
and fragrant, a well-trimmed lamp on a bracket made a soft effulgence of
light, candles were lit on the toilet table, and the carving on the
ancient furniture shone with polish.
Olwen tried to shut her eyes to all this creature comfort. As she
walked in, she left the door open behind her, and halting in the middle
of the room, she pointed to the way out. "You may go, Sunia," said she
coldly.
Sunia looked up. Evidently she was unprepared for this, but almost
immediately she had herself completely in hand. She rose to her knees.
"My Missee not want me this night?"
"No, nor any other night. Go, please."
The woman's eyes dwelt as if in admiration on the determined little
face. "What poor ole ayah done?" she asked.
"You don't need to be told that. You are a spy, and I won't have spies
about me."
"Who say Sunia spy?"
"Your own sahib. He told me all about it. You come pretending to love
me, and then go and make mischief. I have done with you. Please go."
The Hindu prostrated herself, laying her forehead upon the buckle of
Olwen's shoe.
"Missee forgive her--forgive ole ayah this one time. She not do it
again. Only because she frightened of pretty doctor, he look at Missee
with too kind eyes, and Sunia seen pictures in the stars--pictures that
say the doctor he come between Missee and my sahib. Ole ayah obliged to
warn her sahib--and good thing too, very good thing she done it."
"Why is it a good thing? What are you talking about?"
It was very rarely that the ayah smiled, but the ghost of a smile
crossed her lips as she replied, "My sahib angry, and Missee and him
they have it out together, and now they friends. Good thing that, eh?"
"Then you were listening behind the curtain in the dining-room while we
talked!"
"I was not. I tell you, no! How can I be leesten when I busy unpack
all my Missee's things and put 'em away?"
Olwen gave an exclamation of surprise. She was not aware that her heavy
luggage had arrived, but now she noticed that all her small possessions
had been unpacked, and arranged with some taste about the room.
"Why, how did you unlock my trunk? Where is it? It could not come
upstairs?"
The ayah laughed low. "All trunks got to stay in kitchen-house
outside," said she. "Ole ayah find Missee key right enough, and carry
things up in her arms. Missee tell her how she want 'em, eh?"
She rose from the ground, quivering with delight at having turned the
subject, and her eyes were alight with eagerness.
Olwen shrugged her shoulders. "I am much obliged for all the trouble
you have taken, and for putting away my things so carefully; but for all
that, I cannot forget that you are not to be trusted. You make believe
to love me, and then act treacherously."
"No, that wrong," said the woman earnestly. "Ole ayah serve Missee and
serve sahib too. Missee don't really think ole ayah tell about her to
anybody else? Only to the sahib, because all Missee do is right for him
to know."
"How absurd!" cried Olwen; but she could catch a glimpse, she thought,
of the Hindu's logic. The house of Guyse was what she served. She
devoted herself to Olwen only because the girl was for a time part of
the Guyse household. She suspected Balmayne of being anxious to
undermine Miss Innes's opinion of her beloved sahib. To protect him,
she went eavesdropping.
The girl gave a long sigh as she sank into her usual chair, and felt in
a moment the ayah's eager hands busy with the fastenings of her dress.
"Missee trust ole ayah! She can trust her always, except Missee unkind
to my sahib."
Olwen passed a hand across her eyes as if to clear away mist. The face
of Madam, as she eagerly urged her not to place confidence in Sunia, was
present to her fancy. She knew that the past hour had materially altered
her opinion of Ninian. He had succeeded in diminishing, if not in
dispersing her dislike. She was sorry for him. Yet something deep
within her kept on uttering a warning....
She was like one upon whom a spell is being cast. It was as though
Sunia had prepared a deep bath and had urged her to plunge therein,
assuring her that it was what she needed, that it would do her good and
make her happy. As yet she had barely dipped her foot into the flood,
the water was laving but her feet and ankles, but even so, she knew that
it was having some mysterious effect. She foresaw that she would not
emerge as she went in. Something within her was changing ... and the
feel of the waters was delicious....
Sunia's brush was slipping through her torrent of hair, hypnotising as
it passed. It seemed to thrill as it touched the sentient scalp,
engendering a feeling of perfect well-being as though all life were just
sensation.
She discerned danger, yet she yielded. When the ayah had completed her
coiffure, she brought a hand-glass that her Missee might study the
effect.
The subdued tints of her complexion were fitly framed in the dusky gold
of the hair. The eyes were clear, pale in their dark setting. Was she
really growing prettier, or was it part of Sunia's magic, that she
should think so?
Rebelliously she struggled against the feeling that she was beautiful.
She had always held herself to be one of those lucky beings who can go
through life quite unobserved, without noticeable beauty or noticeable
defect. The reflection in the little mirror hardly bore out such an
idea. The charm it revealed was perhaps subtle, but it was nevertheless
apparent.
The thought of having supper alone with Ninian made her self-conscious
until she took herself to task for a weak-minded fool.
She went in to see Madam on her way down. She found her far more
comfortable, and able to enjoy a cup full of Mrs. Baxter's daintily made
gruel. Olwen settled her comfortably for the night before going down.
Ninian was awaiting her, but he greeted her with such a change of manner
as reassured her at once. No more half-sneering compliments, no more of
what she now supposed to have been _ballons d'essai_, designed to make
her show her hand. His manner was open, and almost pleasant. Was Sunia
right after all? Was it a good thing that they should have arrived at
an understanding?
They talked about the procuring of the folding lounge for Madam, and
Ninian explained that there was a station much nearer than Picton Bars,
but that it was practically useless to the dwellers in the Pele because
the only road which approached their eyrie came from a totally different
direction. They had to drive so far round to Raefell station, upon such
bad roads, that it was easier as a rule for them to go via Caryngston.
Lachanrigg, his farm, whose tenant, John Kay, had married the Baxters'
only daughter, was on the way, or not much off the road, to this other
station. It was quite easy to fetch goods from Raefell to Lachanrigg,
but from Lachanrigg to the Pele the only possible route was on foot.
Ninian was quite ready to carry the packed-up lounge from Lachanrigg up
through the Guyseburn woods, and suggested that he should walk down to
Lachanrigg next day, drive thence to Raefell, and telephone from the
station to Leeds, ordering the couch to be sent at once.
She was eager in her thanks, and inquired whether he would have to go
down the steep hill immediately underneath the windows.
He said yes, that was the only way; and added, "I suppose you would not
care to come too? It's quite a pleasant walk to Lachanrigg and back,
and would not keep you out too long."
"I'll go," she said, "if you are kind enough to take me, and if Madam
will spare me. The doctor isn't coming to-morrow."
"You won't find it so dull, walking with me, now that I am beginning to
talk the language," said Nin insinuatingly.
She laughed. "You have made strides in education to-day."
"Nothing like a Reformatory after all. Training seems harsh at first,
but good results are soon perceptible."
"Sorry I was harsh. I never had a pupil before who required that kind
of training."
"Indeed! One would have thought you had done it all your life! Your
method was masterly!"
"What was my method?"
"Knocked him down, stamped on him, rolled him out quite flat, picked him
up, dusted him, put him in the corner----"
"And here he is, sitting up and taking nourishment quite comfortably!
In fact, the process has exhausted the teacher far more than the pupil!
She hopes another application will never, never be necessary."
"It won't. I've sworn off, taken the pledge, and intend to wear the
white flower of the Innes Brigade all my life!"
There were a few Christmas roses in a vase upon the table, and in a
moment of impulse Olwen took out one and handed it to him.
"I found these in the garden to-day, and thought we might as well have
the sight of them," said she. "The white flower of the Innes Brigade,
conferred by the founder herself!"
Nin fastened the big white star in his coat.
Sunia, waiting silently upon them, seemed to notice nothing.
"Didn't you say you would like to look down the well?" asked Nin, as
they strolled out into the hall together.
"Yes, I did, but, please, if it is a bother, don't think of troubling."
"Bother? Of course not. If you like this sort of stuff, there are
heaps of things I can show you." He was rolling back one of the rugs as
he spoke. "This is used every morning, we get our drinking water from
it. The water I brought up the hill is all right for household
purposes, but this is better."
He disclosed a circular hole, fitted with a flat cover. They both knelt
down, while he lifted the lid, and he held a lighted taper over the
black abyss thus revealed.
"At one of the other Peles they have a tame electric light at the end of
a rope," said he, "and they let it down till it hangs just above the
water. You get a fine effect then; I wish we could do it."
For the first time in his company Olwen forgot herself and spoke as to a
friend. "Oh, wouldn't it be grand! Fancy having electric light here,
all up the corkscrew and in those fascinating little passages!"
He sat back upon his heels, looking at her oddly. "You like this old
place, then?"
"Like is hardly the right word. It grips me. It is so unlike anything
I ever saw----"
"You never could see anything just like it unique."
"Are you not glad that it is yours?" she went on, carried away by the
thought. "Guyses built it, Guyses dwelt in it, and still it stands, and
still a Guyse holds it Don't you wish another bull would jump down the
Bull-drop and the luck come back to you?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "I hardly know. I don't want the humbugging
title. There was no Lord Caryngston a hundred and fifty years ago; but
there have been Guyses at Guysewyke since Domesday. My cousin, the
present Baron, would give his eyes to own this place. He hopes that I
shall be driven to sell it one day."
"Oh, _don't_!" cried Olwen so fervently that he laughed.
"You wouldn't sell, in my place?"
"In your place, I would live on a shilling a week, but I wouldn't sell."
He gave a sigh which was almost a groan. "God knows I think as you do,"
he answered, "but it's not so simple as that." He replaced the cover,
and rose, with lips close set. "One day perhaps I may tell you about
it," said he.