THE LADY OF THE RUSHING WATERS
"What'll we do today?"
Beryl asked the question, turning from her post between the curtains of
Robin's sitting-room. Not in a tone of complaint did she speak, rather
as though weighing which pastime would be most worthy of the unexpected
holiday.
For poor Percival Tubbs had "neuralgy" and could not leave his room;
Harkness had told them when he carried in their breakfast.
"_This_ is just the kind of a day you'd like _something_ to happen,"
Beryl went on, permitting a sigh to convey how much she would welcome
that something. "It's all gray and mysterious. The hills look awfully
far away. It's lonesomey."
Robin looked anxiously to her companion. _She_ did not feel lonesome at
all. This room, where they ate their breakfast each morning at Harkness'
suggestion, was cosy and full of inviting books and pretty pictures and
comfy chairs; Harkness was ever so nice and concerned as to their
comfort, they were as secure from Mrs. Budge's hostility as thick walls
and Harkness' vigilance could make them and--best of all, a letter from
her Jimmie, full of Mr. Tony's plans and their contemplated sailing, lay
close to her heart.
"What would you like most to do, Beryl?"
"Oh, let's ask Williams to take us for a long ride--I adore going like
the wind," answered Beryl promptly.
This suggestion appealed to Robin, who, although she didn't like to "go
like the wind," never tired of riding among the hills. She went
immediately with Beryl to find Williams, the chauffeur. Williams, like
the others around the Manor, with the exception of Mrs. Budge, had
fallen under Robin's spell and was enjoying the stir that her coming
brought to the old house. So he declared, now, that it would be a "nice
day for a run" and they could take the Cornwall road, because there was
a fellow in Cornwall he ought to see.
Before the holiday fun could begin Beryl had her "duties" to perform.
These were tasks which she had set for herself so that she might not
feel for one moment that she was living on Robin's charity and were most
of them quite unnecessary and little things that Robin would really like
to do herself. However Beryl was too proudly intent upon saving her
pride to realize this and Robin, instinctively understanding, let her
have her way.
Finally started, the girls snuggled close together in the car, holding
hands under the big robe. And, as they sped over the smooth road, each
let her thoughts take wings. Beryl's, with the honest self-centredness
that was characteristic of her, fluttered about herself. How she looked
in this peachy car--how she'd love to steer it and just step on the gas
and fly; some day, when she was famous, she'd have a car like this only
much bigger and painted yellow and she'd take Mom and Pop out and go
through the Mill neighborhood so that that gossipy Mrs. Whaley who had
called her "stuck-up" could see her. What she'd do in Robin's shoes,
anyway! Why, Robin didn't know what money meant, probably because Robin
had never wanted any one big thing, like she did.
Robin, beside her, sat in cosy contentment--mainly because of her
precious letter. She drew a mental picture of her Jimmie, sailing away.
Then her thoughts came back to the gray hills and she wished her father
might see them at that moment, so as to paint them. He would love
Wassumsic, she knew--but, oh, he would hate the Mills. He would think,
as she did, that it was too bad they had built the Mill cottages between
the dingy buildings and the freight yards when they might have built
them where each window could have overlooked the climbing fields and
woods, where the children could have played in sweet grass the livelong
day and built beautiful snow forts when it was winter.
Beryl suddenly broke the silence by a gleeful "Isn't this fun?" as
Williams coasted down a long grade with a breath-catching acceleration
of speed.
The wind had whipped a fine color into the girls' cheeks, the changing
scenes about them were of untiring interest; they exclaimed delightedly
over each curve and hill in the road, each tiny hamlet through which
they passed. All too soon, they reached Cornwall and started on the
homeward way.
At the top of a steep hill Williams slowed down to slip the gear into
second. In the valley below them was a collection of unpainted houses,
leaning towards one another as though for protection against the growing
things about them.
"The Forgotten Village!" cried Robin. "Don't you feel just as though we
might tumble over into it?"
"A good place to drive right _through_," Williams answered with a
scornful laugh.
Alas, poor Williams--he brought the car skilfully and safely down the
difficult hill only to have it stop, with a reproachful snort, in the
very heart of the little village.
"What's the matter?" asked the girls in one breath as Williams, with an
explosive exclamation, jumped from his seat.
There was a moment of investigation, before the man replied.
"No gas!".
"Is _that_ all?"
"All! I'll say that's enough--here. Don't look as though anyone'd know
what gas is in these parts. You sit in the car while I ask someone, Miss
Forsyth."
"You wanted something to happen, Beryl," laughed Robin, as Williams
walked away.
"Pooh! _This_ isn't much of an adventure. And I'm awfully hungry."
Poor Williams returned with the word that he'd have to walk on to the
next town--unless he was lucky enough to meet someone who'd help him
out. He advised the girls waiting in the store.
"There isn't even a telephone in this dump," he grumbled resentfully,
quite forgetting that he had only his own carelessness to blame for the
whole thing.
Neither Robin nor Beryl had the slightest intention of waiting in the
funny little store where the crackers and tea and coffee looked as old
as the old man who came out from behind the counter at their approach.
They waited until Williams had disappeared, then went forth to explore
the Forgotten Village. Unabashed, they stared at the weather-beaten
houses, at the old woman, a faded shawl tied around her head, washing
clothes at a pump, at the hideous square of dingy brick which served as
school house and church, its window frames stuffed here and there with
rags, a pathetic sign upon which was printed "library," hanging crazily
by one nail.
Beyond the church stood an old mill, its roof tumbled in. Exploring it
the girls heard the sound of tumbling water and discovered a stream
breaking its way through thick undergrowth. A lane, marked by two wagon
ruts, edged the course of the stream.
"Let's see where this goes," suggested Beryl.
Robin limped willingly after her. It was an alluring lane, even in
November, for the ghostly gray branches of old trees met and interlocked
close overhead, fir trees, mingling with the silver white trunks of
slender birches, walled it either side, a whirring of invisible wings
added to its apartness and the little stream, tumbling its way, sounded
like laughter.
"Isn't this the loveliest spot? Wherever do you suppose it comes out?"
For the lane twisted and turned as it climbed.
"Robin, there's a house!"
Ahead of them the girls could see through the trees the outlines of a
low square house. And as they drew nearer, walking stealthily, they
stared in amazement. For, unlike its neighbors in the village below,
this house was as white as fresh white paint could make it, at the
windows hung crisply white curtains, a brass knocker dignified its broad
door.
Robin, always imaginative, clutched Beryl's arm with a breathless
giggle. "Beryl, it's like the house of bread and cake with the window
panes of sugar. Do you suppose someone will call out: 'Tip-tap, tip-tap,
who raps on my door'?"
"Sh-h! I'm hungry enough to eat the roof. Let's ask for a drink of water
so's to see the inside."
Robin did not think it was just nice to deliberately intrude upon the
privacy of this shut-away house but Beryl, not waiting for her approval,
knocked boldly on the heavy old door.
When the door swung open, however, and a beaked-nosed woman, absurdly
like the witch of the fairy story, confronted the girls, Beryl stood
tongue-tied and Robin had to come to the rescue.
"Can we--if you please, we had an accident--I mean, we went for a
walk--oh, _may_ we have a drink of water?" she floundered, fairly
blinking before the sharply piercing eyes of the woman in the door.
"Who is it, Brina?" came from within, whereupon the woman answered in
rapid German, her head turned backward over her shoulder, her hand still
on the doorknob.
"Shame on you, Brina. They are two children--lost, perhaps. Let them
come in."
The room was disappointingly like any other old country-house living
room; scrupulously clean and shining, a wide fireplace aglow with a wood
fire that cast bright splotches of color over the low walls, the faded
rag rugs, the piece-work cushions on the old wooden settle.
Close to its warmth sat a white-haired woman, one long thin hand
supporting her head in such a way as to keep her face in a shadow.
[Illustration: "IT'S LIKE THE HOUSE OF BREAD AND CAKE"]
Robin explained their presence in the lane, incoherently, for there was
something frightening about the silent, composed figure and the
intentness with which those shadowed eyes scrutinized her. While Robin
talked, Beryl swiftly surveyed the room and its occupants, not least of
which was a great St. Bernard dog, that, after one "gr'f'f" leaned
against his mistress' chair and regarded the intruders with watchful
eyes as though to reserve advances, friendly or hostile.
Her account finished, Robin smiled bravely back into the grave face,
with that enchanting tenderness which had won Cornelius Allendyce and
enticed him to strange deeds.
The smile worked its spell at least on the dog for he moved slowly over
to her, lifted a big paw and placed it gravely upon her shoulder.
"Cæsar declares you a friend," said the woman in a slow, low-pitched
voice. "He does not welcome many into our seclusion. Please sit down.
Brina, bring these young ladies a pitcher of milk and some cookies."
Brina swung out of the room at her mistress' bidding. Robin,
uncomfortable but immensely curious and excited, sat on the edge of the
settle and chattered, while Beryl, well behind their silent hostess,
made mysterious signs with fingers and lips and eyes.
"We think this is the loveliest spot--the old town and the mill and this
lane--and all. No one would ever dream from the road that this house was
here. Has it a name? First I called it the House of Bread and Cake and
Sugar--like the fairy story, but it ought to be called the House of
Rushing Waters, hadn't it?"
"That will do--very nicely. No, no one would know from the road that the
house stands here."
But when Robin ventured: "Aren't you ever lonely?" there was a
perceptible tightening of the lips that made her sorry she had asked it.
"Robin, there's something funny about that whole place," declared Beryl,
half-an-hour later as they went back down the lane. "I was doing some
thinking while you were talking."
"She's a dear old lady, Beryl. I feel sorry for her."
"Oh, yes, dear enough. _I_ thought she was stand-offish. But you don't
think for a moment she belongs 'round here, in the same town with that
old cheese down at the store?"
Robin admitted that everything about her House of Rushing Waters was
very different from the Forgotten Village.
"Wasn't that Brina just like a witch with her parrot nose and sharp
eyes?"
But Beryl had no patience just now with Robin's beloved fairy lore. Two
little lines wrinkled her brow.
"There's something queer about that place or my name isn't Beryl Lynch.
And I like to know what's what. Wouldn't it be fun to find out what it
is? Whether she's hiding there on account of something or someone's
keeping her a prisoner? Maybe--" Beryl lowered her voice, "maybe she's
crazy."
"Oh, Beryl, she didn't act a bit crazy. Just very sad. She was nice. I
thought the room was lovely, too--and the lunch and that darling dog."
Robin had thoroughly enjoyed the simple hospitality and meant to defend
it.
"Of course the room was nice," Beryl felt that she showed much patience
with Robin's obtuseness, "but didn't you see anything _different_ in
that room? Books and magazines! Country people don't sit and read
magazines and knit on rose wool in the middle of the afternoon! Robin,
_that_ woman's a lady! And you notice she didn't tell us who she was.
And a woman with her talking some foreign jibberish."
"Beryl, you're wonderful to notice all these things. I'd never have
noticed half of them."
Beryl tossed her head with pride. "Nothing much escapes _me_," she
boasted. "And I think it was a good thing we didn't tell her just who
_we_ were. But let's not let a soul know about our finding this place
until we unravel the mystery."
Robin hesitated. "She was so nice to us and it's really none of our
business why she's there or who she is--" she argued so staunchly that
Beryl put in hastily: "Well, let's just have it a secret because
secrets are such fun." And to that Robin agreed gladly, for secrets
_are_ fun and are always a strengthening bond in true friendship.
"I won't tell a soul!" she promised.
They found Williams waiting for them at the store, worried at their
disappearance and annoyed at the delay. He had walked many miles in
payment for his carelessness.
As they rushed homeward, both girls thought of the house they had left
and its lonely occupant.
"Wouldn't wonder a _bit_ if she might be some royalty person hiding here
from anarchists," whispered Beryl, with a burst of imagination, amazing
for her, tinged by a novel she had recently read.
"Would we dare go again to see her?"
"Of course we're going. Even if you don't, I want to find out who she is
and all about her."
"_I'd_ just like to see her again and that darling dog. If she doesn't
want to tell us who she is I don't want her to! It's more fun to pretend
that her house is made of bread and cake and sugar."
"Pooh!" was Beryl's impatient answer.
And that evening, as though in defense of her suspicions she thrust a
newspaper under Robin's nose with an expressive "There, read _that_!" at
the same time pointing to an inconspicuous paragraph.
The paragraph told of the mysterious disappearance of its Dowager Queen
from the little warring Balkan kingdom of Altruria.
"She could be in this country as well as not. I read a book once where a
Duke hid for five years right in the heart of New York and then met his
heir face to face on Broadway. Wouldn't it be fun if that old woman
_was_ this Dowager Queen?"
"But, Beryl, she talked English. Wouldn't she talk--some other
language?"
Beryl was not to be discouraged. "Dowagers don't. They talk ever so many
tongues. English as good as any. I'll bet anything you say. You just
wait."