The Gold of Chickaree Part 24

'Miss Hazel, your motions are usually determined by your own will, and by nothing else,?in my experience.'

'My dear sir, if you remember your experience so imperfectly, it cannot do you much good. Have I ever been allowed to go anywhere alone?'

'Why did not Rollo bring you home in proper time?'?very shortly.

'First there was a man in trouble, and then a mill,' said Miss Wych, composedly pouring water from her carafe. 'And so of course such small affairs as women had to wait.'

'What was the matter?'

'The man met with an accident. The mill was set on fire. But both were cared for satisfactorily?you need not be uneasy, Mr.

Falkirk. Two such energetics as Mr. Rollo and Dr. Arthur suffice for all the common events of life.'

'And you,?where were you?'

'Miss Maryland and I, sir, were summarily bestowed at Mrs.

Boerresen's for safe keeping.'

'Who is Mrs. Boerresen?'

'My dear Mr. Falkirk!?if you only would stir about a little you would learn so much!' said Wych Hazel. 'Mrs. Boerresen is a quite remarkable person of foreign birth who lives near Morton Hollow.'

'Rollo's old nurse!' said Mr. Falkirk.

Wych Hazel bowed her head with extreme sedateness and went on with her dinner. Mr. Falkirk made a gesture of extreme impatience.

'It seems to me, Miss Hazel, that your other guardian had time to see you safe home, before allowing himself to be claimed by his own affairs. If you had not discretion enough to come, he should have had enough to bring you.'

'It needs valour as well as discretion to run away from one's guardians,' said Miss Kennedy lifting her brows. 'I should have been quite happy, sir, I am sure, to ride home alone.'

"Why didn't he bring you?' growled the elder guardian. 'Or why didn't you make him bring you?'

'Yes, sir. Did you ever try to make Mr. Rollo do anything?'

'Quite out of order!' grumbled Mr. Falkirk; 'quite out of order!

Miss Hazel, it may need valour and discretion both, as you seem to intimate, but I must beg that you will not have the like thing happen again. If you cannot get home in proper time, I prefer that you should not ride with him. I thought the fellow knew better!'

A glance, lightning-swift, from under the dark lashes fell upon Mr.

Falkirk's unconscious face. The girl waited a little before she made reply.

'How am I to know beforehand, Mr. Falkirk? Mills are uncertain things. And men. You are really sure of nothing but women in this world.'

'What do you mean about a mill burning?' came very deep out of Mr. Falkirk's throat.

'Some of the Charteris men set it on fire. The mill was not burned, because watch had been kept; and at the first sign of fire all hands went to work taking out cotton bales till the fire was reached.

There was something of a bonfire outside.'

'Hm. How much loss?'

'Not much. A thousand or two.'

Mr. Falkirk went no further into the subject, or into any other, till the dessert had been taken away and he was fingering the nuts. Mr.

Falkirk took no dessert. And in the midst of cracking a hard nut, effort availed to crack something else.

'Do we go to town this winter, Miss Hazel?'

'I have taken no thought whatever about the winter, sir.'

'Do you intend to stay here?'

'I thought we agreed, sir, to let the winter question wait?'

'I made no such agreement, Miss Hazel. On the contrary, if we let the question wait, there will be no house to receive you when you make up your mind to go.'

'Then we will wait.'

'No, Miss Hazel, if you please I will have your decision. If it makes no difference to you, it makes some to me. Either here or New York?but you must say which.'

'O if you put me in a corner, Mr. Falkirk, I shall stay here,' said Wych Hazel.

'I suppose so. And now, Miss Hazel, will you kindly go a little further and give me your reasons?'

'My dear Mr. Falkirk, you know we agreed long ago, that between you and me reasons should be left to take care of themselves. Do let the winter question rest!'

'I thought we agreed long ago that between you and me there should be confidence,' said her guardian somewhat bitterly.

Now Mr. Falkirk was unreasonable, but it is not in the nature of men to know when they are unreasonable. So making a great and ill-adjusted effort with his nut-cracker, it slipped and did Mr.

Falkirk's finger some harm, instead of the nut. Mr. Falkirk dipped his finger into cold water, wrapped it in his handkerchief, and went off, disgusted with the world generally.

'We never did!' thought Hazel to herself. 'I plainly told him it could not be.' But for all that she felt just a little bit troubled and hurt.

Four days of storms, during which Mr. Falkirk pa.s.sed himself off for sugar and salt, and even Mr. Rollo was somewhat hindered of his pleasure, ended at last in a brilliant Sat.u.r.day afternoon. But though Wych Hazel did send some wistful glances out of the window, she knew perfectly well there could be no coming from Morton Hollow that night. Still, the feminine mind is good at devices; and Miss Kennedy was not the first girl who (for the nonce) has enacted the part of Mahomet. The mountain could not stir,?therefore?

She thought it all out, sitting opposite to Mr. Falkirk at dinner; and when that gentleman had taken his departure, the young mistress of the house fell into a sudden state of activity; her last move being to smother herself in a huge dingy cloak, akin to those worn by the mill people in their improved condition.

'Look at me, Byo,' she said, pulling the rough hood up over her silky curls.

'My dear,' began Mrs. Byw.a.n.k,?'Miss Wych,?if Mr. Rollo should see you!'?

'He would see nothing but my cloak.'

'My dear, I'm not so sure. He has wonderful sharp eyes. And you don't wear your cloak like a mill girl.'

'Don't I look like a new hand?' said Hazel laughing.

'And if he _should_ find out, what would he think!' said Mrs.

Byw.a.n.k.

'He would think you had a cold and couldn't come,' said Wych.