Maggie Miller Part 15

From the first he seemed to exercise over her an influence she could not well resist--a power to make her do whatever he willed that she should do; and though she sometimes rebelled she was pretty sure in the end to yield the contest, and submit to one who was evidently the ruling spirit. As yet nothing had been said of the hair ornament which, out of compliment to him, her grandmother wore every morning in her collar, but at last one day Madam Conway spoke of it herself, asking if it were, as she had supposed, his grandmother's hair.

"Why, no," he answered involuntarily; "it is a lock Maggie sent me in that wonderful daguerreotype!"

"The stupid thing!" thought Maggie, while her eyes fairly danced with merriment as she antic.i.p.ated the question she fancied was sure to follow, but did not.

One glance at her tell-tale face was sufficient for Madam Conway. In her whole household there was but one head with locks as white as that, and whatever her thoughts might have been, she said nothing, but from that day forth Hagar's hair was never again seen ornamenting her person! That afternoon Mr. Carrollton and Maggie went out to ride, and in the course of their conversation he referred to the pin, asking whose hair it was, and seeming much amused when told that it was Hagar's.

"But why did you not tell her when it first came?" he said; and Maggie answered: "Oh, it was such fun to see her sporting Hagar's hair, when she is so proud! It didn't hurt her either, for Hagar is as good as anybody. I don't believe in making such a difference because one person chances to be richer than another."

"Neither do I," returned Mr. Carrollton. "I would not esteem a person for wealth alone, but there are points of difference which should receive consideration. For instance, this old Hagar may be well enough in her way, but suppose she were nearly connected with you--your grandmother, if you like--it would certainly make some difference in your position. You would not be Maggie Miller, and I--"

"Wouldn't ride with me, I dare say," interrupted Maggie; to which he replied, "I presume not," adding, as he saw slight indications of pouting, "And therefore I am glad you are Maggie Miller, and not Hagar's grandchild."

Mentally p.r.o.nouncing him a "proud, hateful thing," Maggie rode on a while in silence. But Mr. Carrollton knew well how to manage her, and he too was silent until Maggie, who could never refrain from talking any length of time, forgot herself and began chatting away as gayly as before. During their excursion they came near to the gorge of Henry Warner memory, and Maggie, who had never quite forgiven Mr. Carrollton for criticising her horsemans.h.i.+p, resolved to show him what she could do. The signal was accordingly given to Gritty, and ere her companion was aware of her intention she was tearing over the ground at a speed he could hardly equal. The ravine was just on the border of the wood, and without pausing for an instant Gritty leaped across it, landing safely on the other side, where he stopped, while half fearfully, half exultingly, Maggie looked back to see what Mr. Carrollton would do.

At first he fancied Gritty beyond her control, and when he saw her directly over the deep chasm he shuddered, involuntarily stretching out his arms to save her; but the look she gave him as she turned around convinced him that the risk she had run was done on purpose.

Still he had no intention of following her, for he feared his horse's ability as well as his own to clear that pa.s.s.

"Why don't you jump? Are you afraid?" and Maggie's eyes looked archly out from beneath her tasteful riding cap.

For half a moment he felt tempted to join her, but his better judgment came to his aid, and he answered: "Yes, Maggie, I am afraid, having never tried such an experiment. But I wish to be with you in some way, and as I cannot come to you I ask you to come to me. You seem accustomed to the leap!"

He did not praise her. Nay, she fancied there was more of censure in the tones of his voice; at all events, he had asked her rather commandingly to return, and she "wouldn't do it." For a moment she made no reply, and he said again, "Maggie, will you come?" then half playfully, half reproachfully, she made answer, "A gallant Englishman indeed! willing I should risk my neck where you dare not venture yours. No, I shan't try the leap again to-day, I don't feel like it; but I'll cross the long bridge half a mile from here--good-by;" and fully expecting him to meet her, she galloped off, riding ere long quite slowly, "so he'd have a nice long time to wait for her!"

How, then, was she disappointed, when, on reaching the bridge, there was nowhere a trace of him to be seen, neither could she hear the sound of his horse's footsteps, though she listened long and anxiously!

"He is certainly the most provoking man I ever saw!" she exclaimed, half crying with vexation. "Henry wouldn't have served me so, and I'm glad I was engaged to him before I saw this hateful Carrollton, for grandma might possibly have coaxed me into marrying him, and then wouldn't Mr. Dog and Mrs. Cat have led a stormy life! No, we wouldn't," she continued; "I should in time get accustomed to minding him, and then I think he'd be splendid, though no better than Henry. I wonder if Hagar has a letter for me!" and, chirruping to Gritty, she soon stood at the door of the cabin.

"Have you two been quarreling?" asked Hagar, noticing Maggie's flushed cheeks. "Mr. Carrollton pa.s.sed here twenty minutes or more ago, looking mighty sober, and here you are with your face as red--What has happened?"

"Nothing," answered Maggie, a little testily, "only he's the meanest man! Wouldn't follow me when I leaped the gorge, and I know he could if he had tried."

"Showed his good sense," interrupted Hagar, adding that Maggie mustn't think every man was going to risk his neck for her.

"I don't think so, of course," returned Maggie; "but he might act better--almost commanded me to come back and join him, as though I was a little child; but I wouldn't do it. I told him I'd go down to the long bridge and cross, expecting, of course, he'd meet me there; and instead of that he has gone off home. How did he know what accident would befall me?"

"Accident!" repeated Hagar; "accident befall you, who know every crook and turn of these woods so much better than he does!"

"Well, anyway, he might have waited for me," returned Maggie. "I don't believe he'd care if I were to get killed. I mean to scare him and see;" and, springing from Gritty's back, she gave a peculiar whistling sound, at which the pony bounded away towards home, while she followed Hagar into the cottage, where a letter from Henry awaited her.

They were to sail for Cuba on the 15th of October, and he now wrote asking if Maggie would go without her grandmother's consent. But, though irresolute when he before broached the subject, Maggie was decided now. She would not run away; and so she said to Hagar, to whom she confided the whole affair.

"I do not think it would be right to elope," she said. "In three years more I shall be twenty-one, and free to do as I like; and if grandma will not let me marry Henry now, he must wait. I can't run away. Rose would not approve of it, I'm sure, and I almost know Mr. Carrollton would not."

"I can't see how his' approving or not approving can affect you,"

said Hagar; then bending down, so that her wild eyes looked full in Maggie's eyes, she said, "Are you beginning to like this Englishman?"

"Why, no, I guess I aint," answered Maggie, coloring slightly. "I dislike him dreadfully, he's so proud. Why, he did the same as to say that if I were your grandchild he would not ride with me!"

"My grandchild, Maggie Miller!--my grandchild!" shrieked Hagar. "What put that into his head?"

Thinking her emotion caused by anger at Arthur Carrollton, Maggie mentally chided herself for having inadvertently said what she did, while at the same time she tried to soothe old Hagar, who rocked to and fro, as was her custom when her "crazy spells" were on. Growing a little more composed, she said at last, "Marry Henry Warner, by all means, Maggie; he aint as proud as Carrollton--he would not care as much if he knew it."

"Knew what?" asked Maggie; and, remembering herself in time, Hagar answered adroitly: "Knew of your promise to let me live with you. You remember it, don't you?" and she looked wistfully towards Maggie, who, far more intent upon something else, answered: "Yes, I remember. But hus.h.!.+ don't I hear horses' feet coming rapidly through the woods?"

and, running to the window, she saw Mr. Carrollton mounted upon Gritty, and riding furiously towards the house.

"You go out, Hagar, and see if he is looking for me," whispered Maggie, stepping back, so he could not see.

"Henry Warner must snare the bird quick, or he will lose it," muttered Hagar, as she walked to the door, where, evidently much excited, Mr.

Carrollton asked if she knew aught of Miss Miller, and why Gritty had come home alone. "It is such an unusual occurrence," said he, "that we felt alarmed, and I have come in quest of her."

From her post near the window Maggie could plainly see his face, which was very pale, and expressive of much concern, while his voice, she fancied, trembled as he spoke her name.

"He does care," she thought; woman's pride was satisfied, and ere Hagar could reply she ran out, saying laughingly: "And so you thought maybe I was killed, but I'm not. I concluded to walk home and let Gritty go on in advance. I did not mean to frighten grandma."

"She was not as much alarmed as myself," said Mr. Carrollton, the troubled expression of his countenance changing at once. "You do not know how anxious I was when I saw Gritty come riderless to the door, nor yet how relieved I am in finding you thus unharmed."

Maggie knew she did not deserve this, and blus.h.i.+ng like a guilty child she offered no resistance when he lifted her into the saddle gently--tenderly--as if she had indeed escaped from some great danger.

"It is time you were home," said he, and throwing the bridle across his arm he rested his hand upon the saddle and walked slowly by her side.

All his fancied coldness was forgotten; neither was the leap nor yet the bridge once mentioned, for he was only too happy in having her back alive, while she was doubting the propriety of an experiment which, in the turn matters had taken, seemed to involve deception.

Observing at last that he occasionally pressed his hand upon his side, she asked the cause, and was told that he had formerly been subject to a pain in his side, which excitement or fright greatly augmented. "I hoped I was free from it," he said, "but the sight of Gritty das.h.i.+ng up to the door without you brought on a slight attack; for I knew if you were harmed the fault was mine for having rather unceremoniously deserted you."

This was more than Maggie could endure in silence. The frank ingenuousness of her nature prevailed, and turning towards him her dark, beautiful eyes, in which tears were s.h.i.+ning, she said: "Forgive me, Mr. Carrollton. I sent Gritty home on purpose to see if you would be annoyed, for I felt vexed because you would not humor my whim and meet me at the bridge. I am sorry I caused you any uneasiness," she continued, as she saw a shadow flit over his face. "Will you forgive me?"

Arthur Carrollton could not resist the pleading of those l.u.s.trous eyes, nor yet refuse to take the ungloved hand she offered him; and if, in token of reconciliation, he did press it a little more fervently than Henry Warner would have thought at all necessary, he only did what, under the circ.u.mstances, it was very natural he should do. From the first Maggie Miller had been a puzzle to Arthur Carrollton; but he was fast learning to read her--was beginning to understand how perfectly artless she was--and this little incident increased, rather than diminished, his admiration.

"I will forgive you, Maggie," he said, "on one condition. You must promise never again to experiment with my feelings in a similar manner."

The promise was readily given, and then they proceeded on as leisurely as if at home there was no anxious grandmother vibrating between her high-backed chair and the piazza, nor yet an Anna Jeffrey watching them enviously as they came slowly up the road.

That night there came to Mr. Carrollton a letter from Montreal, saying his immediate presence was necessary there, on a business matter of some importance; and he accordingly decided to go on the morrow.

"When may we expect you back?" asked Madam Conway, as in the morning he was preparing for his journey.

"It will, perhaps, be two months at least, before I return," said he, adding that there was a possibility of his being obliged to go immediately to England.

In the recess of the window Maggie was standing, thinking how lonely the house would be without him, and wis.h.i.+ng there was no such thing as parting from those she liked--even as little as she did Arthur Carrollton.

"I won't let him know that I care, though," she thought, and forcing a smile to her face she was about turning to bid him good-by, when she heard him tell her grandmother of the possibility there was that he would be obliged to go directly to England from Montreal.

"Then I may never see him again," she thought; and the tears burst forth involuntarily at the idea of parting with him forever.

Faster and faster they came, until at last, fearing lest he should see them, she ran away upstairs, and, mounting to the roof, sat down behind the chimney, where, herself un.o.bserved, she could watch him far up the road. From the half-closed door of her chamber Anna Jeffrey had seen Maggie stealing up the tower stairs; had seen, too, that she was weeping, and, suspecting the cause, she went quietly down to the parlor to hear what Arthur Carrollton would say. The carriage was waiting, his trunk was in its place, his hat was in his hand; to Madam Conway he said good-by, to Anna Jeffrey too; and still he lingered, looking wistfully round in quest of something which evidently was not there.

"Where's Margaret?" he asked at last, and Madam Conway answered: "Surely, where can she be? Have you seen her, Anna?"

"I saw her on the stairs some time ago," said Anna, adding that possibly she had gone to see Hagar, as she usually visited her at this hour.