The Gold of Chickaree Part 54

Perhaps it was the thought of Hazel's great loneliness that touched him, the very remembrance of which he wished to kiss away; perhaps something else had its share in the caresses which were as tender as they were loving; but then he said softly,

'It would not be the proper thing, Hazel.'

'Well.?' A rather long breath gave up the point.

'Don't you see it, Wych?'

'Not quite. But you do not know how he talked before he went away.?Nor what sort of a letter I shall be sure to write. I shall tell him that as it distracted my attention to run counter to two people?'

'You will write a very gentle and careful one. He loves you very much, Hazel. Which was one reason why he was so unwilling that you and I should get acquainted.'

Wych Hazel looked up at him with absolute terror in her face.

'What do you mean?' she said.

'It is not very strange. I have the greatest respect for Mr. Falkirk?

and not the less because he had sense enough to love you a little too well. Do you remember your making him go to Catskill?'

Wych Hazel's head went down on her hands, without a word; but outside the s.h.i.+elding fingers the distressful colour shewed itself in every possible place. Remember!?what did she not remember??

things she had done, things she had said.

'He was afraid,' Dane went on smiling, 'that if I had a chance to see you I might choose to take the conditions of the will; he had good reason to fear! You must write him the dutifullest, gentlest, lovingest letter, Hazel; and lay off the blame of everything upon the shoulders that can bear it. Mr. Falkirk knows me. And if, by and by, we could coax him to come and make his home with us, I should be happy.'

'And everybody knew it but me!'?said Hazel, thinking out. 'It is good I can do no more mischief.'

'What is that?' said Dane laughing. 'What mischief have you done?'

'Hush?I was talking to myself. But oh, I am so sorry!?' Looks and tones and words and recollections were pouring in upon her like a flood.

'What are you sorry for? You need not be sorry, my little Wych,'

said he, changing his tone with the last words. 'You have done him good and given him pleasure for so many years; and I am not without hope that both good and pleasure will be renewed and continued to the end of his life. So write a nice letter to him. And come to dinner in the first place.'

But it was a very remorseful flushed face that came to the table.

'Done him good and given him pleasure!' she repeated;?'teased his life out, would be nearer the mark.'

'That did him good,' said Dane dryly. 'That is the way you expect to give me pleasure, you know.'

From under a queer little lift of her eyebrows, Hazel looked up at him. 'Is it?' she said with equal dryness.

'Does the leopard change his spots?'

'The other half of the simile is more like me,' said Hazel,?

'however, if you prefer this? But given the spots, the pleasure may be to seek.'

'I can find it, as fast as you find the spots. Will you have cheese with your soup?'

Hazel thought within herself, declining the cheese, that the day when she ventured any of her old pranks with _that_ particular person, was somewhat remote. Would she ever be "true witch"

again, she wondered?

'You forget,' she said. 'You told me once yourself that you thought very few men could stand it.'

'I meant?except me,' said Dane with great coolness.

'You'?didn't, was on Hazel's tongue, but she let it stay there. A quick, bright eye flash went over her, but Dane kept his countenance and went on with his dinner. He understood very well one or two things that were in Hazel's mind. He knew that she thought she had lost liberty in marrying, and he knew that she was mistaken in thinking so; but he also knew that the sweet growths of the mind cannot be forced; and he could wait. He never said "my dear" and "my love" to her, this man; he let Hazel find him out for what he was, all hers; but it might take time. He thought he would give her a little help.

'Have you been studying the third chapter of Genesis?' he asked when the servant was out of the room.

'No. At least?I was thinking of Adam and Eve a little when you came home.'

'In German or English?'

'English prose.'

'It is stronger yet in German. "Dein Wille soll deinem Manne unterworfen sein, and er soll dein Herr sein." I think you have been studying it in German. But Hazel, that is the form of the curse; and the curse is done away in Christ.'

'But,' she said gravely, her timid reserve coming back with the subject,?'But the facts stand.'

'What facts? And take some nuts along with the facts.'

'The facts?of the case,' said Hazel, using her nut-cracker and laying the meats abstractedly on one side. 'The right of way,?and strength to enforce it,?for two.'

Again Dane's eyes flashed and the corners of his mouth were a little hard to keep in order.

'Neatly put?' he said.

Hazel glanced at him, but she ventured no questions.

'But you forget, Hazel,' he went on gravely, 'that all that, the odious part of it, belongs to a state of things that in Christ is pa.s.sed away. It remains true, no doubt, that "the man is the head of the woman;" else the lesson-type would not answer to the lesson, which is to set forth the beauty and nearness of the relation between Christ and his church. But in a right marriage it is also true that "the woman is the glory of the man." Not the housekeeper, nor the nurse, or the plaything, still less the bond- woman; but the GLORY. She is the flower of all humanity; the good and beauty and grace of all earth, finds?for him?its perfectest bloom and expression in her.'

She listened, smiling a little bit, then grave again.

'But that'?she said,?'is _that_ what it means?'

'Excuse me. What what means, Wych?'

'The words you quoted. The last words.'

'Do they mean what I said? Certainly.'

'And only that?'

'Can you make them mean more?'

'For me, a good deal more.'

'Then it will be for me, probably. Go on, and explain.'

'No, perhaps not for you. You might be perfectly content with the flower, as you call it, in your hand; content with your content; looking no further.'