The grass grew tall and lush under the gnarled old apple-trees back
of the Inn, and the straggling footpath which led to the landing was
a path only in name. By the time he had gained the river Ethan’s
immaculate white shoes were slate-colored with dew. The canoe rested
on two poles laid from crotches of the apple trees, which overhung the
stream. Ethan lifted it down and dropped it into the water. With paddle
in hand he stepped in and pushed off down-stream.
[Illustration]
On his left the orchard and garden of the Inn marched with him for a
way, giving place at length to a neck of woodland. On his right, seen
between the twisted willows, stretched a pleasant view of meadows and
tilled fields in the foreground, and, beyond, the gently rising hills,
wooded save where along the base the encroaching grasslands rose and
dipped. A couple of sleepy-looking farmhouses were nestled in the
middle-distance and the faint _whir-r-r_ of a mowing machine floated
across the meadows. In the high grass daisies were sprinkled as thickly
as stars in the Milky Way, and buttercups thrust their tiny golden
bowls above the pendulous plumes of the timothy, foxtail, and fescue.
The blue-eyed grass, too, was all abloom, like miniatures of the blue
flags which congregated wherever the spring floods had inundated the
meadows.
The sand-bar came in sight and the little river began to fuss and
fret as it gathered itself for what it doubtless believed to be an
awe-inspiring rush. The canoe bobbed gracefully through the rapids and
swung about in the pool below. Ethan winked soberly at the sign on the
willow tree and dipped his paddle again. The canoe breasted the lazy
current of the brook.
[Illustration]
It was just such a day as yesterday. The little breeze stirred the
rushes along the banks and brought odors of honeysuckle. Fleecy white
clouds seemed to float on the unshadowed stretches of the stream. On
one side a sudden blur of deep pink marked where a wild azalea was
ablossom. Again, a glimpse of white showed a viburnum sprinkling the
ground with its tiny blooms. Cinnamon ferns were pushing their pale
bronze “fiddle-heads” into the air. Now and then a wood lily displayed
a tardy blossom. Near the stone bridge a kingfisher darted downward to
the brook, broke its surface into silver spray and arose on heavy wing.
Once past the bridge and with only a single winding of the brook
between him and the lotus pool, Ethan trailed his paddle for a moment
while he asked himself whether he really expected to find the girl
waiting for him. Of course he didn’t, only――well, there was just
a chance――――! Nonsense; there was not the ghost of a chance! Oh,
very well; at least there was no harm in his paddling to the lotus
pool――barring that he was trespassing! He smiled at that. He smiled at
it several times, for some reason or other. Then he dipped his paddle
again and sent the “Good Fortune” gliding swiftly over the sunlit
water of the pond. And when he looked there she was, seated on the
bank, just as――and he realized it now――he had expected all along that
she would be!
[Illustration]
But it was not Clytie he saw; not unless the fashions have changed
considerably and water-nymphs may wear with perfect propriety white
shirtwaist suits and tan shoes. It was not impossible, he reasoned;
for all he knew to the contrary, the July number of the Goddesses’
Home Journal――doubtless edited by Minerva――might prescribe just
such garments for informal morning wear. At all events, being less
_bizarre_ than the flowing peplum of yesterday, Ethan――whose tastes
in attire were quite orthodox――liked it far better. The effect was
quite different, too. Yesterday she might have been Clytie; to-day
reason cried out against any such possibility; she was a very
modern-appearing and extremely charming young lady of, apparently,
twenty or twenty-one years of age, with a face, at present seen
in profile, piquant rather than beautiful. The nose was small and
delicate, the mouth, under a short lip, had the least bit of a pout
and the chin was softly round and sensitive. This morning she wore her
hair in a pompadour, while at the back the thick braids started low on
her neck and coiled around and around in a perfectly delightful and
absolutely puzzling fashion. Ethan liked her hair immensely. It was
light brown, with coppery tones where the sunlight became entangled.
She was seated on the sloping bank, her hands clasped about her knees
and her gaze turned dreamily toward the cascade which sparkled and
tinkled at the upper curve of the pool. As the canoe had made almost
no sound in its approach, she was, of course, ignorant of Ethan’s
presence. And yet it may be mentioned as an interesting if unimportant
fact that as he gazed at her for the space of half a minute a rosy
tinge, all unobserved of him, crept into her cheeks. He laid his paddle
softly across the canoe, and,――――
“Greetings, O Clytie!” he said.
She turned to him startledly. A little smile quivered about her lips.
“Good morning, Vertumnus,” she answered. Perhaps his gaze showed a
trifle too much interest, for after a brief instant hers stole away. He
picked up the paddle and moved the canoe closer to the shore.
“I’m very glad to find you have not yet taken root,” he said gravely.
“Taken root?” she echoed vaguely.
“Yes, for that was your fate at the last, wasn’t it? If I am not
mistaken you sat for days on the ground, subsisting on your tears and
watching the sun cross the heavens, until at last your limbs became
rooted to the ground and you just naturally turned into a sunflower. At
least, that’s the way I recollect it.”
“Oh, but you shouldn’t tell me what my fate is to be,” she answered
smilingly.
“Forearmed is forewarned; no, I mean the other way around!” he replied.
“Maybe if you just keep your feet moving you’ll escape that fate. It
would be awfully uncomfortable, I should say! Besides, pardon me if it
sounds rude, sunflowers are such unattractive things, don’t you think
so?”
[Illustration]
“Yes, I’m afraid they are. The fate of Daphne or Lotis or Syrinx would
be much nicer.”
“What happened to them, please?”
“Why, Daphne was changed to a laurel; have you forgotten?”
“No, but how about the other ladies?”
“Lotis became a lotus and Syrinx a clump of reeds. Pan gathered some
and made himself pipes to play on.
“‘Poor nymph!――Poor Pan!――how he did weep to find
Naught but a lovely sighing of the wind
Along the reedy stream; a half-heard strain
Full of sweet desolation――balmy pain.’”
“Shelley, for a dollar,” he said questioningly.
She shook her head smilingly. “Keats,” she corrected.
“Oh, I have a way of getting them mixed, those two chaps.” He paused.
“Do you know, it sounds odd nowadays to hear anyone quote poetry?”
“I suppose it does; I dare say it sounds very silly.”
“Not a bit of it! I like it! I wish I could do it myself. All I know,
though, is
“‘The Lady Jane was tall and slim,
The Lady Jane was fair,
And Sir Thomas, my lord, was stout of limb,
But his breath was short, and――――’
and so on. I used to recite that at school when I was a youngster;
knew it all through; and I think there were five or six pages of it.
I was quite proud of that, and used to stand on the platform Saturday
mornings and just gallop it off. I think the humor appealed to me.”
“It must have been delightful!” she laughed. “But you haven’t got even
that quite right!”
“Haven’t I? I dare say.”
“No, Sir Thomas was _her_ lord, not _my_ lord, and it was his cough
that was short instead of his breath.”
“Shows that my memory is failing at last,” he answered. “But, tell me,
do you know every piece of poetry ever written?”
“No, not so many. I happen to remember that, though. Besides, we
dwellers on Olympus hold poetry in rather more respect than you
mortals.”
“You forget that I am Vertumnus,” he answered haughtily.
“Of course! And you puzzled me with that yesterday, too. I had to go
home and hunt up a dictionary of mythology to see who Vertumnus was.”
“I――I trust you found him fairly respectable?” he asked. “To tell the
truth, I don’t recollect very much about him myself; and some of those
old chaps were――well, a bit rapid.”
“Vertumnus was quite respectable,” she replied. “In fact, he was quite
a dear, the way he slaved to win Pomona. I never cared very much about
Pomona,” she added frankly.
“I――I never knew her very well,” he answered carelessly.
“I think she was a stick.”
“You forget,” he said gently, “that you are speaking of the lady of my
affections.”
“Oh, I am so sorry!” she cried contritely. “Please forgive me!”
“If you will let me smoke a cigarette.”
“Why not? Considering that I am on shore and you on the water it hardly
seems necessary――――”
“Well, of course it’s your own private pool,” he said. “I thought
perhaps nymphs objected to the odor of cigarette-smoke around their
habitations.”
“This nymph doesn’t mind it,” she answered.
He selected a cigarette from his case very leisurely. He had had
several opportunities to see her eyes and was wondering whether they
were really the color they seemed to be. He had thought yesterday
that they were blue, like the sky, or a Yale flag or――or the ocean in
October; in short just _blue_. But to-day, seen from a distance of some
fifteen feet, and examined carefully, they appeared quite a different
hue, a――a violet, or――or mauve. He wasn’t sure just what mauve was,
but he thought it might be the color of her eyes. At all events, they
weren’t merely blue; they were something quite different, far more
wonderful, and infinitely more beautiful. He would look again just as
soon as he had the cigarette lighted, and――――
“Were you surprised to find me here this morning?” she asked suddenly.
There was no hint of coquetry in her tone and he stifled the first
reply occurring to him.
“I――no, I wasn’t――for some reason,” he answered honestly. “I dare say I
ought to have been.”
“I came on purpose to meet you,” she said calmly.
“Er――thank you――that is――――!”
“I wanted to explain about yesterday. You see I didn’t want you to
think I was just simply insane. There was――method in my madness.”
[Illustration]
“But I didn’t think you insane,” he denied, depositing the burnt
match carefully on a lily-pad and raising his gaze to hers. “I
thought――that――――”
“Yes, go on,” she prompted. “Tell me what you did think when you found
me here in that――that _thing_!”
“I thought I was in Arcadia and that you were just what you said you
were, a water-nymph.”
“Oh,” she murmured disappointedly; “I thought you were really going to
tell me the truth.”
“I will, then. Frankly, I didn’t know what to think. You said you were
Clytie, and far be it from me to question a lady’s word. I was stumped.
I tried to work it out yesterday afternoon and couldn’t, and so I came
back to-day in the hope that I might have the good fortune to see you
again.”
“It was rather silly,” she answered. “And I ought to have run away
when I saw your canoe coming. But it was so unexpected and sudden,
and I was bored and――and I wondered what you would look like when I
told you I was a water-nymph!” She laughed softly. “Only,” she went
on in a moment, with grievance in her tones, “you didn’t look at all
surprised! I might just as well have said ‘I am Mary Smith’ or――or
‘Laura Devereux!’”
(“Aha!” quoth Ethan to himself, “I am learning.”)
“You were very disappointing,” she concluded severely.
“I am sorry, really. I realize now that I should have displayed
astonishment and awe. Perhaps if you had said you were Laura――Laura
Devereux, was it?――I would have really shown some emotion.”
“Why?” she questioned.
“Well, don’t you think――Laura, now, is――I’m afraid I can’t just
explain.” He was watching her intently. She was studying her clasped
hands. “I suppose what I meant was that Laura is such an attractive
name, so――so musical, so melodious! And then coupled with Devereux it
is even――even――er――more so!”
“Is it?” She didn’t look at him and her tone was almost icy.
(“I fancy that’ll hold you for awhile,” he said to himself. “My boy,
you’re inclined to be a little too fresh; cut it out!”)
“I never thought Laura especially melodious,” she said.
“Perhaps you are prejudiced,” he suggested amiably.
“Why should I be?” she asked, observing him calmly. He hesitated and
paid much attention to his cigarette.
“Oh, no reason at all, I suppose,” he answered finally. He looked up
in time to surprise a little mocking smile in her eyes. Nonsense! He’d
show her that she couldn’t bluff him down like that! “To be honest,” he
continued, “what I meant was that some folks take a dislike to their
own names; in which case they are scarcely impartial judges.” He looked
across at her challengingly. She returned the look serenely.
“So you think that is my name?” she asked.
“Isn’t it?”
“I don’t see why you should think so,” she parried. “I might have found
it in a novel. I’m sure it sounds like a name out of a novel.”
“But you haven’t denied it,” he insisted.
“I don’t intend to,” she replied, the little tantalizing smile
quivering again at the corners of her mouth. “Besides, I have already
told you that my name is Clytie.”
He tossed the remains of his cigarette toward where one of the swans
was paddling about. The long neck writhed snake-like and the bill
disappeared under the water. Then with an insulted air and an angry bob
of the tail, the swan turned her back on Ethan and sailed hurriedly
back to her family.
“I understand,” he said. “I will try not to forget hereafter that this
is Arcadia, that you are Clytie and that I am Vertumnus.”
“Thank you, Vertumnus,” she said. “And now I must tell you what I came
here to tell. You must know, sir, that I am not in the habit of sitting
around on the grass in broad daylight dressed――as I was yesterday. If
I did I should probably catch cold. Yesterday morning we――a friend and
I――dressed up in costume and took each other’s pictures up there under
the trees. Afterwards the fancy took me to come down here and――and
‘make believe.’ And then you popped on to the scene all of a sudden.”
[Illustration]
“I see. Very rude of me, I’m sure. Of course, as we are in Arcady, and
you are a nymph and I a――a god, I don’t understand at all what you are
talking about; but I _would_ like to see those pictures!”
“I’m afraid you never will,” she laughed.
“I’m not so sure,” he said thoughtfully. “Strange things happen
in――Arcady.”
“Weren’t you the least bit surprised when you saw me? And when
I――acted so silly?”
“I certainly was! Really, for a while――especially after you had gone――I
was half inclined to think that I had been dreaming. You did it rather
well, you know,” he added admiringly.
“Did I?” She seemed pleased. “Didn’t it sound terribly foolish when I
spouted that about Apollo?”
“Not a bit! I――I half expected the sun to do something when you raised
your hands to it; I don’t know just what; wink, perhaps, or have an
eclipse.”
“You’re making fun of me!” she said dolefully.
“But I am not, truly! However, I don’t think you treated your audience
very nicely. To get me sun-blind and then steal away wasn’t kind. When
I looked around you had simply disappeared, as though by magic, and
I――” he shivered uncomfortably――“I felt a bit funny for a moment.”
“Really?” She positively beamed on him, and Ethan felt a sudden warmth
at his heart. “I suppose every person has a sneaking desire to act,”
she went on. “I know I have. Ever since I was a little girl I’ve loved
to――to ‘make believe.’ That’s why I did it yesterday.”
“Have you ever considered a stage career?” he asked gravely. She leaned
her chin in one small palm and observed him doubtfully.
“I never seem to know for certain,” she complained, “whether you are
making fun of me or not. And I don’t like to be made fun of――especially
by――――”
“Strangers? I don’t blame you, Miss――Clytie. I wouldn’t like it
myself.”
She continued to study him perplexedly, a little frown above her
somewhat impertinent nose. Ethan smiled composedly back. He enjoyed it
immensely. The sunlight made strange little golden blurs in her eyes.
They were very beautiful eyes; he realized it thoroughly; and he didn’t
care how long she allowed him to look into them like this. Only, well,
it was a bit disquieting to a chap. He could imagine that invisible
wires led from those violet orbs of hers straight down to his heart.
Otherwise how account for the tingling glow that was pervading the
latter? Not that it was unpleasant; on the contrary――――
“I beg your pardon?” he stammered.
“I merely said that I had no idea of the stage,” she replied distantly,
dropping her gaze.
“Oh!” He paused. It took him a moment to get the sense of what she had
said through his brain. Plainly, Arcadian air possessed a quality not
contained in ordinary ether, and its effect was strangely deranging
to the senses. “Oh!” he repeated presently, “I am glad you haven’t. I
shouldn’t want you to――er――――”
But that didn’t appear to be just the right thing to say, judging from
the sudden expression of reserve which settled over her countenance.
Ethan shook himself awake.
“It is time for me to go,” she said, getting to her feet. Ethan made an
absurdly futile motion toward assisting her. “I think I have explained
matters, don’t you?”
[Illustration: “I THINK I HAVE EXPLAINED MATTERS, DON’T YOU?”]
“You have explained,” he answered judicially, “but there is much
more that would bear, that even demands elucidation.”
“I don’t see that there is,” she replied a trifle coldly.
“Oh, of course, if you prefer to have me place my own interpretation
on――things――――!”
“What things?” she demanded curiously.
“What things?” he repeated vaguely. “Oh, why――er――lots,” he ended
lamely.
She turned her back.
“Good morning,” she said.
He took a desperate resolve.
“Good morning. Now that I know who you are――――”
“You don’t know who I am!” she retorted, facing him defiantly.
“Pardon me, but――――”
“I didn’t say my name was――that!”
“And I know more besides,” he added mysteriously.
“You don’t!”
“Oh, very well.” He smiled superiorly.
“How could you?”
“You forget that we gods have powers of――――”
“Oh! Well, tell me, then.”
“Not to-day,” he answered gently. “To-morrow, perhaps.”
He raised his paddle and turned the canoe about.
“But you will not see me to-morrow,” she said, stifling the smile that
threatened to mar her severity.
“You are not thinking of leaving Arcady?” he asked in surprise. “Where,
pray, could you find a more delightful pool than this? Observe those
swans! Observe the lilies! Besides, even in Arcady one doesn’t move so
late in the season.”
[Illustration]
She regarded him for a moment with intense gravity. Then,
“You really think so?” she asked musingly.
“I really do.”
He waited, wondering at himself for caring so much about her decision.
At last,
“Perhaps you are right,” she said. “Good morning.”
“And I, shall see you to-morrow?” he cried eagerly.
She turned under the first tree. The green shadows played over her hair
and dappled her white gown with tremulous silhouettes.
“That,” she laughed softly, tantalizingly, “is in the hands of the
gods.”
Her dress showed here and there through the trees for a moment and
then was lost to sight. Ethan heaved a sigh. Then he smiled. Then he
seized the paddle and shot the canoe toward the outlet.
[Illustration]
“Well,” he muttered, “I know how this god will vote!”