THE PICNIC.
Lucy spent a most melancholy night. It was dreadful to her to think that
she had been not only “no good,” but the doer of harm. She imagined to
herself poor St. Clair, with that weakness which prevented him from
realizing the hopes of his friends, going away from the shelter and
comfort his aunt had provided for him and the rest of this quiet place,
and struggling again among others each more able to fight their way than
he--and all because of her, who should have smoothed his way for him,
who had the means to provide for him, to make everything easy. It is
impossible to describe the compunctions that filled Lucy’s inexperienced
heart. It seemed all her fault, his departure, and even his
incomprehensible proposal--for how could he ever have thought of such a
thing himself, he a gentleman, and she only a girl, at school the other
day--and all the disappointment and grief which must have been caused by
his going away, all her doing! though she had meant everything that was
kind, instead of this trouble. When she saw Jock preparing for his
lessons, her distress overpowered her altogether. “I am afraid Mr. St.
Clair is not coming,” she said, faltering, at breakfast; “I think he has
gone away,” feeling herself almost ready to cry. “Gone away!” said the
Fords, in a breath; and they exchanged looks which Lucy felt to be
triumphant. “And a good riddance too,” cried Mrs. Ford, “a fellow not
worth a penny, and giving himself airs as if he had hundreds in his
pocket.” “My dear,” her husband said, “perhaps you are too severe. I
think sometimes you are too severe; but I can’t say I think him much of
a loss, Lucy, if you will take my opinion.” Lucy was not much comforted
by this deliverance, and after hearing a full discussion of Mrs. Stone
and her belongings, was less consoled than ever. If they were poor so
much the more dismal for him to fail. Lucy could not settle to her own
work, she could not resume her own tasks so dutifully undertaken, but in
which she felt so little interest. It was easy for Jock to dispose of
himself on the great white hearth-rug with his book. She could not help
saying this as the sound of the leaves he turned caught her ears. “It
does not matter for you,” she said, “you are only a small boy, you never
think about anything, or wonder and wonder what people are going to do.”
Jock raised his head from the book, and looked at her with his big
eyes. He had been conscious of her restlessness all along, though he was
reading the “Heroes,” which St. Clair had given him. Her little
uncomfortable rustle of movement, her frequent gazings from the window,
the under-current of anxiety and uncertain resolution in the air, had
disturbed Jock in spite of himself. He lay and watched her now with his
head raised. “I wish,” said Jock, “we could get Heré or somebody to
come.” But Lucy was more insulted than helped by this speech. “What is
the use of trying to speak to you about things?” she cried exasperated,
“when you know we are real living creatures, and not people in a book!”
And Lucy in her distress cried, which she was not in the habit of doing.
Jock raised himself then to his elbow, and looked at her with great
interest and sympathy. “Heré can’t come to us,” he said seriously, “but
she was just a lady, only bigger than you are. Couldn’t you just go
yourself?”
“Jock, do you think I should go?” the girl cried. It was like consulting
an oracle, and that is what all primitive people like to do.
“Yes,” said the little boy, dropping down again satisfied upon his
fleecy rug. How could he know anything about it? but Lucy took no time
to think. She hastened to her room and put on her hat, and was hurrying
along the road to the White House, before she had thought what to say
when she got there. It was just twelve o’clock, a moment at which Mrs.
Stone was always to be found in her parlor, resting for half an hour in
the middle of her labors. Lucy found herself tapping at the parlor-door
in the fervor of her first resolution. She went in with eyes full of
tearful light. Mrs. Stone and Miss Southwood were both in the room. They
turned round with great surprise at the sight of her.
“How do you do, Lucy?” Mrs. Stone said, very coldly, not even putting
out her hand.
“Oh,” cried Lucy, full of her generous impulse. “Why has Mr. St. Clair
gone away?”
“I told you,” said Miss Southwood. “I told you! the girl doesn’t know
her own mind.”
Mrs. Stone caught her this time by both hands. “Lucy,” she cried, “don’t
trifle or be a little fool. If this is what you mean, Frank will come
back. You may be sure he did not want to go away.”
Lucy felt the soft hands which took hold of her grip like fingers of
iron, and felt herself grappled with an eager force she could scarcely
withstand. They came round her with anxious faces, seizing hold upon
her. For a moment she almost gasped for breath, half suffocated by the
closing in around her of this trap into which she had betrayed herself.
But the emergency brought back her strength and self-command. “It is not
that,” she said, with poignant distress and shame, though she had no
reason to be ashamed. “Oh, forgive me, it is not that!”
Mrs. Stone dropped her hands as if they had been hot coals, and turned
away. “This is a moment when I prefer to be alone, Miss Trevor,” she
said, as she was in the habit of saying to the girls who disturbed her
retirement; “if there is anything in which I can serve you, pray say so
without any loss of time. I reserve this half hour in the day to
myself.”
Thus chilled after the red heat of excitement into which she had been
raised, Lucy stood trembling, scarcely knowing what to say.
“I beg your pardon,” she faltered at last; “I came because I was so
unhappy about-- Mr. St. Clair.”
“Lucy, what do you mean?” cried Miss Southwood. “Don’t frighten the
child, Maria! what _do_ you mean? You drive him away, and then you come
and tell us you are unhappy. What do you intend us to understand?”
“I wanted to come to you before,” said Lucy, with great humility,
looking at Mrs. Stone, who had turned away from her. “Please listen to
me for one moment. You said he was not strong, not able to do all he
wished. Mrs. Stone, I have a great deal of money left me by papa to be
given away.”
Mrs. Stone started to her feet with sudden passion. “Do you mean to
offer him money?” she cried.
This time Lucy did not falter, she confronted even the tremendous
authority of Mrs. Stone with a steady though tremulous front, and said,
“Yes,” very quietly and distinctly, though in a voice that showed
emotion. Her old instructress turned on her commanding and imposing, but
Lucy did not quail, not even when Mrs. Stone repeated the words, “to
offer him money!” in a kind of scream of dismay.
“Maria, let us hear what she means; we don’t know what she means; Lucy,
tell it all to me. She can not bear Frank to go away. Let me hear what
you mean, Lucy, let me hear.”
It was Miss Southwood who said this, putting herself between Lucy and
her sister. Miss Southwood was not imposing, her anxious little face
conciliated and calmed the girl. How comfortable it is, how useful to
have a partner, or a brother, or sister, entirely unlike yourself! It is
as good as being two persons at once.
“Miss Southwood, papa left me a great deal of money--”
At this the listener nodded her head a great many times with a look of
pleased assent; then shook it gently and said, “But you should not think
too much of your money, Lucy, my dear.”
“To give away,” said Lucy, hastily; “he left me this duty above all, to
give away to those who needed it. There is a great deal of money, enough
for a number of people.”
“Oh!” Miss Southwood cried out, in a voice which ran up a whole gamut of
emotion. She put out her two hands, groping as if she had suddenly
become blind. Consternation seized her. “Then you are not--” she said.
“Maria, she can not be such a great heiress after all!”
Mrs. Stone’s astonished countenance was slowly turned upon Lucy from
over her sister’s shoulder. She gazed at the girl with an amazement
which struck her dumb. Then she said with an effort, “You meant to offer
some of this--charitable fund--to _my_ nephew--”
“It is not a charitable fund--it is not charity at all. It was to be
given in sums which would make the people independent. Why should you
think worse of me than I deserve?” cried Lucy; “it is not my fault. I
did not want him to say--_that_-- I wanted to help him--to offer
him--what papa left.”
Here Mrs. Stone burst out furious. “To offer him--my nephew--a man; and
you a little chit of a girl, a nobody--help as you call it--alms!
charity!”
“Maria-- Maria!” said Miss Southwood. “Stop, I tell you. It is all
nonsense about alms and charity. Good honest money is not a thing to be
turned away from any one’s door. Lucy, my dear, speak to me. Enough to
make people independent! Old Mr. Trevor was a wonderfully sensible old
man. How much might that be? You have no right to spoil the boy’s
chance. Oh, hold your tongue, Maria! Lucy, Lucy, my dear, do tell _me_.”
“I never knew that was what he meant, Miss Southwood,” said Lucy,
eagerly. “How could I think that he--a Gentleman--” She used such a big
capital for the word that it overbalanced Lucy’s eloquence. “And I only
a little chit of a girl,” she added, with a tremulous laugh, “it is
quite true. But there is this money, and I _have_ to give it away. I
have no choice. Papa said-- And since he is not strong, and wants rest.
Gentlemen want a great deal more money than women; but if it was only
for a short time, till he got strong--perhaps,” said Lucy, faltering
and hesitating, “a few thousand pounds--might do?”
The two ladies stood and stared at her confounded--they were struck
dumb, both of them. Mrs. Stone’s commanding intellect stood her in as
little stead as the good Southwood’s common sense, upon which she so
prided herself. A few thousand pounds?
“And it would make me--so much more happy!” Lucy said. She put her hands
together in the fervor of the moment entreating them; but they were both
too entirely taken by surprise, too much overwhelmed by wonder and
confusion to speak. Only when Mrs. Stone moved, as if in act to speak,
Miss Southwood burst forth in alarm.
“Hold your tongue--hold your tongue,” she said, “Maria!” Never in all
her life had she so ventured to speak to her dominant sister before.
But when Lucy finally withdrew from this interview it was with a heart
calmed and comforted. Mrs. Stone was still stupefied; but her sister had
recovered her wits. “You see, Maria, this money is not hers. It is trust
money; it is quite a different thing; and she is not such a great
heiress after all. Dear Frank, after all, might have been throwing
himself away,” was what Miss Southwood said. Lucy heard this, as it
were, with a corner of her ear, for, at the same time, the bell began to
ring at the White House; and it was echoed faintly by another at a
distance which she alone understood. This was the bell for Mrs. Ford’s
early dinner, and Lucy knew that the door had been opened at No. 6 in
the Terrace, in order that she, if within hearing, might be summoned
home. And that was not an appeal which she ventured to disobey.
This morning’s adventure made Lucy’s heart much more light for her
pleasure in the afternoon. When Raymond and Emmie rode up at two
o’clock, he on the new horse which his father had permitted to be bought
for this very cause, she sitting very clumsily on a clumsy pony, Lucy
and Jock met them with nothing but smiles and brightness. It was not so
bright as the day on which the expedition had been planned. The autumn
afternoon had more mist than mellow fruitfulness in it, and there was a
cold wind about which shook the leaves in clouds from the trees. And
Raymond, for his part, was nervous and uncomfortable. He had a deep and
growing sense of what was before him. At a distance, such a piece of
work is not so terrible as when seen close at hand. But when time has
gone on with inexorable stride to the very verge of a moment which
nothing can delay, when the period has come beyond all possibility of
escape, then it is not wonderful if the stoutest heart sinks. Raymond
had got some advantages already by the mere prospect of this act to
come. He had got a great many pleasant hours of leisure, escaping from
the office, which he was not fond of; and he had got his horse, which
was a very tangible benefit. And in the future what might he not hope
for? Emancipation from the office altogether; a life of wealth and
luxury; horses, as many as he could think of; hunting, shooting,
everything that heart could desire; a “place” in the country; a box
somewhere in Scotland; a fine house in town (which moved him less), and
the delightful certainty of being his own master. All these hung upon
his power of pleasing Lucy--nothing more than pleasing a girl. Raymond
could not but think with a little scorn of the strange incongruity of
mortal affairs which made all these happinesses hang upon the nod of a
bit of a girl; but granting this, which he could not help granting, it
was, he had frankly acknowledged, a much easier way of getting all the
good things of life than that of laboriously striving for them all his
life long--to succeed, perhaps, only at the end, when he was no longer
able to enjoy them. “And you _are_ fond of Lucy,” his mother said.
Yes--this too the young man did not deny. He liked Lucy, he “did not
mind” the idea of spending his life with her. She was very good-natured,
and not bad-looking. He had seen girls he thought prettier; but she was
not bad-looking, and always jolly, and not at all “stuck up” about her
money; there was not a word to be said against her. And Raymond did not
doubt that he would like it well enough were it done. But the doing of
it! this was what alarmed him; for, after all, it must be allowed that,
more or less, he was doing it in cold blood. And many things were
against him on this special day. The wind was cold, and it was charged
with dust, which blew into his eyes, making them red, and into his
mouth, making him inarticulate. And Emmie clung to his side on one hand,
and Jock on the other. He could not shake himself free of these two;
when Lucy and he cantered forward, instead of jogging on discreetly,
these two pests would push on after, Jock catching them up in no time,
but Emmie, after lumbering along with tolerable rapidity for thirty
yards or so, taking fright and shrieking “Ray! Ray!” Raymond concluded,
at last, with a sense of relief, that to say anything on the way there
would be impossible. It was a short reprieve for him, and for the moment
his spirits rose. He shook his head slightly when they met the party who
had gone in the break, and when his mother’s anxious eye questioned him,
“No opportunity,” he whispered as he passed her. The party in the break
were covered with dust, and they had laid hold upon all the wraps
possible to protect them from the cold. There was shelter in the wood,
but still it was cold, and the party was much less gay than the previous
one had been, though Mrs. Rushton herself did all that was possible to
“keep it up.” Perhaps the party itself was not so well selected as on
that previous occasion. It was larger, which, of itself, was a mistake,
and Bertie, who did not know the people, yet was too great a personage
to be neglected, proved rather in Mrs. Rushton’s way. He would stray
after Lucy, interfering with Ray’s “opportunity,” and then would
apologize meekly for his “indiscretion,” with a keen eye for all that
was going on.
“Oh, there is no indiscretion,” Mrs. Rushton said; “but young people,
you know, young people seeing a great deal of each other, they like to
get together.”
“I see,” Bertie said, making a pretense of withdrawal; but from that
moment never took his eyes off Lucy and her attendant. The sky was gray,
the wind was cold, the yellow leaves came tumbling down upon their
plates, as they eat their out-door meal. Now and then a shivering guest
looked up, asking anxiously, “Is that the rain?” They all spoke
familiarly of “the rain” as of another guest expected; would it come
before they had started on their return? might it arrive even before the
refection was over? They were all certain that they would not get home
without being overtaken by it. And notwithstanding this alarmed
expectation of “the rain,” the ham and the chickens were gritty with the
dust which had blown into the hampers. It was very hard upon poor Mrs.
Rushton, everybody said.
“Come up and look at the water-fall,” said Ray to Lucy. “No, don’t say
where we are going, or we shall have a troop after us. That fellow, that
Russell, follows everywhere. Thank heaven he is looking the other way.
He might know people don’t want him forever at their heels. Ah! this is
pleasant,” Ray said, with as good a semblance of enthusiasm as he could
muster, when he had safely piloted Lucy into a narrow leafy path among
the trees. But Lucy did not share his enthusiasm; she shivered a little
as they plunged into the shadow, which shut out every gleam of the
fitful sun.
“It is a great pity it is so cold,” Lucy said.
“A horrid pity,” said Ray, with energy; but then he remembered his
_rôle_, “for you,” he said; “as for me, I am very happy-- I don’t mind
the weather. I could go like this for miles, and never feel the want of
the sun.”
“I did not know you were so fond of the woods,” Lucy said.
“Nor is it the woods I am fond of,” said Ray, and his heart began to
thump. Now the moment had certainly come. “It is the company I--love.”
“Hallo!” cried a voice behind. “I see some one in front of us--who is
it? Rushton. Then this must be the way.”
“Oh, confound you!” Ray said, between his teeth; and yet it was again a
kind of reprieve. The leafy path was soon filled with a train of people,
headed by Bertie, who made his way to Lucy’s side, when they reached the
open space in which was the water-fall.
“Is not this a truly English pleasure?” Bertie said; “why should we all
be making ourselves miserable eating cold victuals out of doors when we
should so much prefer a snug cutlet at home? and coming to gaze at a
little bit of driblet of water when we all expect floods any moment from
the sky?”
“It is a pity,” said Lucy, divided between her natural inclination to
assent and consideration for Raymond’s feelings, “it is a pity that we
have so unfavorable a day.”
“But it is always an unfavorable day--in England,” Bertie said. He had
been “abroad” before he came to Farafield, and he liked to make this
fact known.
“I have never been anywhere but in England,” said Lucy, regretfully.
“Nor I,” said Ray, defiant.
“Nor I,” said some one else, with a touch of scorn.
“Authors always travel about so much, don’t they?” cried an _ingénue_ in
a whisper which was full of awe; and this turned the laugh against
Bertie. He grew red in spite of himself, and cast a vengeful glance at
the young woman in question.
“Ah, you should have seen the day we had at Versailles; such lawns and
terraces, such great trees against the bluest, brightest sky. Miss
Trevor, do you know I think you should not venture to ride home.”
“Why?” said Ray, with restrained fury, thrusting himself between them.
“I did not suppose it mattered for you, Rushton; but Miss Trevor will
get drenched. There, I felt a drop already.”
They all looked anxiously at the gray sky. “I should not like Jock to
get wet,” said Lucy. “I do not mind for myself.”
“Come round to this side, you will see the fall better,” Raymond said;
and then he added, “come along, come along this short way. Let us give
that fellow the slip. It is not the rain he is thinking of, but to spoil
my pleasure.”
“Versailles is something like Windsor, is it not? have you been there
lately, Mr. Russell? Oh, we shall soon know. I can always tell when you
gifted people have been traveling by your next book,” said one of the
ladies.
“Suppose we follow Rushton,” said Bertie. “He knows all the best points
of view.”
And once more the train was at Ray’s heels. “I think I do feel the rain
now,” Raymond cried, “and listen, wasn’t that thunder? It would not be
wise to be caught in a thunder-storm here. Russell, look after Mrs.
Chumley, and make for the open; I will get Miss Trevor round this way.”
“Thunder!” the ladies cried, alarmed, and there was a rush toward an
open space.
“Nonsense,” cried Bertie, “there is no thunder,” but it was he himself
who had prophesied the rain, and they put no faith in him. As for Lucy,
she served Raymond’s purpose involuntarily by speeding along the nearest
opening.
“Jock is always frightened. I must see after him,” she cried. Raymond
thought she did it for his special advantage, and his heart rose; yet
sunk, too, for now it was certain that the moment had come.
“Stop,” he said, panting after her, “it is all right, there is no hurry,
I did not mean it. Did you ever see thunder out of such a sky?”
“But it was you who said it,” Lucy cried.
“Don’t you know why I said it? To get rid of those tiresome people; I
have never had time to say a word to you all the day.”
“Then don’t you really think it will rain?” Lucy said, doubtfully,
looking at the sky. She was much more occupied with this subject than
with his wish to say something to her. “Perhaps it would be best to
leave the horses, and drive home if there is room?” she said.
“I wish I were as sure of something else as that it will not rain. Stay
a little, don’t be in such a hurry,” said Ray. “Ah, if you only knew how
I want to speak to you; but either some one comes, or-- I funk it. I am
more afraid of you than of the queen.”
“Afraid of--me?” Lucy laughed a little; but looked at him, and grew
nervous in spite of herself. “Don’t you think we had better wait for the
others?” she said.
“I have funked it fifty times; but it does not get any easier by being
put off; for if you were to say you would have nothing to do with me I
don’t know what would happen,” said Ray. He spoke with real alarm and
horror, for indeed he did know something that would inevitably happen.
The cutting short of all his pleasures, the downfall of a hundred hopes.
“We have seen a great deal of each other since you came home, and we
have got on very well.”
“Oh, yes,” said Lucy, “very well! I think I hear them coming this way.”
“No, they are not likely to come this way. I have always got on well
with you, I don’t know how it is; often I can’t get on with ladies; but
you are always so jolly, you are so good-tempered; I don’t know any one
half so nice,” said the youth, growing red. “I am not a hand at
compliments, and I never was what you call a ladies’ man,” he continued,
floundering and feeling that he had made a mistake in thus involving
himself in so many words. “Look here, I think you are the very nicest
girl I ever met in my life.”
“Oh, no,” Lucy said, growing graver and more grave, “I am sure you are
making a mistake.”
“Not the least a mistake-- I like everything about you,” said Raymond,
astonished at his own fervor and sincerity. “You are always so jolly;
and we have known each other all our lives, when we were quite babies,
don’t you remember? I always called you Lucy then. Lucy--our people seem
to think that you and I--don’t you think? I do believe we should get on
just as well together all our lives, if you were willing to try.”
“Oh, Mr. Raymond,” cried Lucy, distressed, “why, why should you talk to
me like this? We are good friends, and let us stay good friends. I am
sure you don’t in your heart want anything more.”
“But I do,” cried Raymond, piqued. “You think I am too young, but I am
not so very young; many a fellow is married before he is my age. Why
shouldn’t I want a wife as well as the others? I do; but Lucy, there is
no wife I care for but you.”
“Mr. Raymond, we must make haste, or we shall be caught in the rain.”
“What do I care if we are caught in the rain? But there is not going to
be any rain, it was only to get rid of the others,” Raymond said,
breathless; and then he added with almost tragical pleading, “It would
be better for me that we should be swept away by the rain than that you
should not give me an answer.” He put his hand upon her sleeve. “Lucy,
is it possible that you do not like me?” he said.
“I like you very well,” cried Lucy, with tears in her eyes; “but, oh,
why should you talk to me like this? Why should you spoil everything?
You will think after this that we never can be friends any more.”
“Then you will not?” said Ray. He was a great deal more disappointed
than he had thought he could be, and even the satisfaction of having got
it over did not console him. His face lengthened more and more as he
stood opposite to her, barring her passage, leaning against the stem of
a tree. “I never thought you would be so hard upon a fellow. I never
thought,” said Raymond, his lip quivering, “that after all you would
throw me off at the last.”
“I am not throwing you off at the last--it has always been the same,”
said Lucy; “oh, could not you have left me alone?” she cried, half
piteous, half indignant. She walked straight forward, passing him, and
he did not any longer attempt to bar the way. He followed with his head
drooping, his arms hanging limp by his side, the very image of defeat
and discomfiture. Poor Ray! he could have cried when he thought of all
he had lost, of all he was losing; and yet there began to gleam over his
mind a faint reflection of content in that it was over. This at least
was a thing which nobody could expect him to repeat any more.