Jasper Lyle Part 17

While she rides, her mother is pacing the verandah with Mr Trail. Good Mr Trail, he is soothing that ruffled spirit, deprecating its jealousy of authority in trifles; he a.n.a.lyses Mrs Daveney's motives, he sifts them like wheat before her very face, and he condenses, in the "half-hour's talk," almost the history of her moral life since her marriage. He is a very old friend; he has been a.s.sociated with her in her husband's district for years; he has seen her children grow up, and he loves them.

He loves Eleanor best, though: we naturally feel most for those we pity.

And Eleanor--she is riding side-by-side with Major Frankfort. Ah, take heed, Frankfort--she has, as yet, no thought of thee!

It was like a picture of a hunting-party in old times. Eleanor revived to new life on horseback, and her bright bay steed rejoiced in the precious burden he bore. She took the lead with Frankfort, leaving her father with Marion and Ormsby. Poor Ormsby, he deserved some credit for letting Frankfort arrange the reins for Marion; but the rosy lips were pouting, the eyes reproachfully turned towards him, and he could not resist the temptation of joining her in the avenue when her father fell back to see that the escort following them was well armed.

Start not, reader, at the notion of ladies riding for pleasure with armed escorts in a heathen land. Many a time and oft have I traversed these enamelled plains, too much exhilarated with the grandeur of the scene to think of danger.

Eleanor, in her dark riding-habit, fitting so as admirably to display the graceful shape and easy att.i.tude of the rider, a large, simple straw hat shading the face, over which, under the influence of the refres.h.i.+ng breeze, a hue like the inside of a delicate sh.e.l.l was stealing, was a delightful picture to Frankfort, who had often longed to draw her from the shade she always sought; and Marion, in a riding-dress like her sister's, but with an ostrich plume wound round her hat, resembled one of those saucy dames, who "went a hunting" in the merry days of vicious, pleasant, witty Charles the Second.

They scarce drew rein for four miles. There was no spoor of Kafirs, the hills were silent, and there were herds of bucks gathered on the plains.

The tribes were evidently sitting ominously still.

The Trails and Mrs Daveney were watching at the gateway when the riders came in sight. Those left behind were always anxious till the wanderers came back again, in these uncertain days.

The time of truce was pa.s.sed by the settlers in the district in "making ready" for the expectant foe--in Kafirland the people were collecting cattle, arms, and ammunition. It was the lull that precedes the storm, and the community at Annerley knew it. All there calmly but resolutely awaited the crisis. The women, children, and old men, occupying the wagon bivouac, were fain to be content with the news they received occasionally from their friends at their homesteads; the Trails kept the even tenor of their way in the school, and among the humble people of the settlement; and Ormsby, unable to restrain his pa.s.sion for Marion, was in a serious dilemma between his wish to remain and Frankfort's advice to him to rejoin his regiment at once, if he was not in earnest.

"In earnest, my good fellow!" exclaimed the incorrigible flirt; "you don't suppose I am in earnest, do you?"

"Then, if you are not in earnest, according to the world's acceptance of the term," replied Frankfort, "you should go. If you remain under such circ.u.mstances, I can neither consider you as a man of honour nor an honourable man."

Ormsby was selfish, as you know; but he had a great respect for Frankfort, who, without making a fuss about being a "man of honour,"

_was_ an honourable man. Ah, reader! there is a wide difference between the two, as perhaps you have found before now.

That evening Ormsby went to Mr Daveney, and solicited leave to pay his addresses to his daughter Marion.

Mr Daveney desired time to think; but, at any rate, refused to hear of a definite engagement until the young soldier had reconsidered the subject, and written home to his father for "consent and approbation."

Nay, the honest-hearted settler--Mr Daveney and his wife often referred to themselves as settlers--would have had the young man return to his regiment without delay, that he might try the test of time and absence, before Marion was even consulted; but despatches suddenly arrived, bringing accounts of the result of the great meeting with the chiefs, who, contrary to their usual practice, breathed nothing but war and defiance in the very teeth of the authorities. It was clear, the borders of the colony could not be pa.s.sed with any chance of safety.

There seemed no alternative now but to await the reiteration of the war-cry, and stand to arms from Port Elizabeth to Natal. The Dutch in the upper districts refused their aid in the Colonial cause, and the Kafirs chuckled at hearing that the _Amahulu_ and the _Amaglezi_--(the Boers and the English)--were "barking at each other like dogs."

The little episode of which Marion was the heroine had been the means of bringing Eleanor and Frankfort into nearer communion than during the first week of their acquaintance. The young widow's gravity of manner was little changed, but the deep melancholy was gradually giving way before the influence of a mind that opened its stores chiefly for her.

She did not talk more than usual, but she listened, and Frankfort felt he had gained a vantage-ground.

He kept it, too. Like Scheherazade in the "Arabian Nights," he always contrived, when he quitted this fair, sad creature's side, to leave something for her mind to rest upon; some subject which she would wish resumed. I am wrong in using the word "contrived"--that was not Frankfort's "way"--but the interest Eleanor took in all that he so pleasantly and intelligently discussed invested it with an additional charm to himself.

Meanwhile, father, mother, friends, looked on, and hoped that a light was dawning on the horizon of Eleanor's clouded life, and they rejoiced.

They had no doubt of Frankfort's honesty of purpose. His bearing and his sentiments were alike frank, just, kind, manly, and single-minded.

He was not blindly, pa.s.sionately in love with the soft voice and mournful eyes that had certainly at first enchained his attention-- bewitched him, as some would have it--but he was most deeply interested in the young widow; anxious to penetrate the cloud of sorrow that even in his presence shaded her brow, and, as he reluctantly admitted to himself, created a gulf between her and him, which he only _hoped_ to remove or pa.s.s over. Every night, as he paced the avenue after the sentinels were posted, did he resolve on openly addressing Mr Daveney on the subject of his widowed daughter's position; but the resolve faded into air, when he reconsidered what had pa.s.sed between himself and Eleanor in the day. He had two weighty reasons for pausing. He was by no means sure of Eleanor's sentiments towards himself, and he had a dread, though this he was unwilling to acknowledge, in his own mind, of lifting the veil of mystery with which he _felt_ more than he _knew_ she was invested.

But as soon as he did gain courage to sound the depths of his own heart, he recognised the duty he owed to her, to her family, especially his gracious, generous host, and to himself; and he resolved that another sun should not set till the question, on which he felt whole years of happiness must depend, was decided.

The dew was on the leaves and the sun high in the east, when Eleanor Lyle came through the cool hall into the glowing verandah on the morning when Frankfort had at last resolved on requesting an interview with her father.

He had a very strong idea that she liked him. She was one who had evidently suffered from the treachery or the evil humour of man; everything she said or did was tinged with some fatal remembrance. She shrunk from the sound of the name she bore; she could not believe in Ormsby's faith; she did not openly ignore all honourable feelings in the other s.e.x, but she clearly set no store by men's promises to women. She did not volunteer these strong opinions--they were drawn from her; but Frankfort soon discovered that it was he only who could elicit them.

Yes, she most certainly liked him--she had a good opinion of him, too, he fancied; he had tested it at times in his own quiet way.

They met together in the verandah this fine, warm, balmy, dewy morning, while the world was pleasantly astir. Children creeping out of the wagon bivouacs with "s.h.i.+ning morning faces;" herd-boys coming by the house with baskets of meelies and fine burnished English tins of milk; graceful Fingo girls, with fresh-gathered pumpkins and cool green water-melons on their heads; Mrs Trail's Bechuana nursemaid and ruddy children--such contrasts to their dusky Abigail--loaded with heather, lilac, pink, and white, and purple; and then there swung out from the old mulberry-tree in the vineyard the call to prayers in the school.

The people from the wagons hurried off; the front garden and avenue were deserted; there was not a sound but the whooming of a great bee that was always rifling the doricas and invading the roses and convolvuluses, till the "morning hymn" swelled on the warm, still air in solemn chorus, and true, though unstudied, harmony.

They descended the steps, and sought the shade of the avenue. It was flanked on either side by a little nursery of trees; there was a good deal of low bramble and brushwood, which made almost a labyrinth of the ground; but there was a shady spot beside a silver thread of water that stole from the rill irrigating the vineyard, and Frankfort and Eleanor were bent on gathering water-cresses for breakfast. I doubt if people not interested in each other would have thought of taking all this trouble for a few green leaves; but these two went about it as if they had laid out for themselves a serious employment.

It was a delicious nook. Eleanor had even laughed at the scramble she had had in reaching it, and sat down heated and fatigued with her descent of the bank, down which Frankfort might have made an excuse to lift her if he had so pleased--he would have been pleased to do so--but he did not; there was such a divine purity about this young and graceful and subdued being, that, had he been in a desert with her, he would, have felt that it was she who drew the barrier between them, which he dared not pa.s.s.

All this may seem very anomalous when you think how Frankfort dreaded to lift the veil between them; but, remember, his doubts were the issue of lonely reflective hours in Eleanor's presence. He grieved at the secret sorrow that oppressed her, and bound with its heavy fetters the joyous impulses of youth.

How handsome he looked as he cast himself on the green-sward beside the little rill, his hat laid aside, his open, honest countenance brightened with enjoyment at the radiance of the morning and the fragrant beauty of this green retreat, with the shy retiring Eleanor actually smiling in his face, as he fanned her with the broad green leaves of arums growing in the s.h.i.+ning watercourse. Ah, it was the honesty of that face that made it so handsome! Eleanor was not one to be attracted by mere statuesque beauty--she had forsworn love for ever--she was antic.i.p.ating peace in this abjuration of love, when the kindly eyes and approving smile of this true-hearted soldier beamed on her with an effect like sunlight on the hills in Kafirland, scathed by the lightning. There are patches on which no green gra.s.s will ever again grow--desolate spots in the great oasis; but these are overlooked as the herald of a new day touches them with his glory, and casts all that is unsightly into shade.

Gems of dew glittered on the mossy bank--flowers, rainbow-hued, were opening their chalices to the genial influence of day--a magnificent corallodendrum spread its scarlet-tufted boughs over a low rustic bench, and they seated themselves together under this fine canopy. Eleanor had desired a little Fingo boy to follow her with a basket for the cresses-- Frankfort thought he obeyed his mistress much too soon.

She had taken off the large straw hat--Frankfort held it for her; her fine hair was slightly disordered; there was a light in her eye, a colour in her cheek, her lover--we must call him such now--had never seen before. That young face, that candid smile--nay, the smile sometimes broke into a low musical laugh. Ah! could, the demon of self-reproach be lurking beneath all this bewitching feminine charm?

Frankfort felt that the time must soon come when he should ask her for her history. He had resolved to learn it from herself. He longed to pour balm into the wounded heart; he was growing hourly less _afraid_ of hearing the truth. He was just, too,--he felt that no offer of confidence could be made to him till he solicited it.

He would do so now. She sent her little dusky page to the rill and rose to follow him. She was tying on her hat, when a slender chain encircling her throat caught in the strings, and she unwittingly drew it from her bosom. Frankfort saw suspended to it the miniature he had found in the vineyard.

He felt emboldened,--he ventured to touch it.

She made no remonstrance, but with a deep sigh would have replaced it.

Frankfort held it fast. His hand did not shake, but his heart beat.

How often does a sudden impulse bring to a crisis what has cost us many hours of forethought! and how often--oh! how often!--does the one great event of a life hinge upon some trifle unforeseen! A look, a word, an unexpected meeting, will often remove the doubts and agonies of years, when but for what we call _accident_, there might have been no meeting, no blessed exchange of look or word.

Frankfort felt that this was a crisis in his life.

"Eleanor," said he, "whose child was this?"

"Mine, Major Frankfort," she replied, "mine; he died, and--" she broke into a pa.s.sion of tears. He drew close to her--she suffered him to take her hand. All his doubts faded at sight of those fast-falling tears,-- those sobs of agony.

"Not now, not yet," said she; "the bitterness of death is past; but you have touched a chord which has vibrated through my soul, and I must have time to recover my trembling senses."

She took the arm offered her; they returned by an open pathway to the house, the little Fingo following, carrying his basket piled full of fresh and glittering leaves, and in his arms a quant.i.ty of arums, the large water-lilies of South Africa.

Mrs Daveney and Marion were in the entrance-rooms. Since Ormsby's avowal of his attachment, Marion was more constantly at her mother's side. I have shown you how Mr Trail had exerted his influence over Mrs Daveney for good; how his words, like the dew from heaven, falling on good seed, had revived her best impulses, and removed the tares of false pride and self-glorification from her heart. Ah, kind, useful man, there be many that the world calls "as good as thee;" but there are _ways_ of ministering G.o.d's word, "the small rain upon the tender herb,"

refres.h.i.+ng the soil, not tearing it up and sweeping it away in the torrent of over-zeal and self-righteousness. It is such as Mr Trail who pioneer the way for the timid, and keep the ground for the weak.

Verily, it is the meek-spirited who possess the earth; they consider the evil of their own nature in reproving others, and obtain concessions to their humility which would be denied to their a.s.sumption of supremacy.

How dark and unfathomable are the depths of our own hearts, till the Day-star from on high sheds its divine ray on our souls, and teaches us to guide others by conquering ourselves!

But it strikes me you may think me prosy,--too fond of dissecting people's motives. Pardon me, it is my way, my fault, my habit,--excuse it if it does not suit you, and pa.s.s on.

"Ah!" cries the worldly-minded reader, "by Eleanor's tact and candour, a very delicate point has been settled; confidence has been established among all; Ormsby declares he never should have known his own mind if he had not been brought to the point; he was never so happy in his life."

In a word, you will exclaim, "All's well that ends well." Certainly, that is one of the secrets of self-gratulation and content in this work-a-day world.

But do not jump at conclusions--we are not near the end of our story yet.

Mrs Daveney saw traces of tears in Eleanor's eyes. She glanced at Frankfort, and observed that his face was fall of serious thought; but, albeit Marion had always been the favourite, so to speak, the mother had every confidence in Eleanor. How often mothers _love_ one child best, but trust another most!