Queechy Volume I Part 41

"Very well ? why shouldn't I? ? provided he steals no love from anybody else," said Fleda, still caressing him.

"What a noise somebody is making down stairs!" said Hugh. " I don't think I should ever want to go to large parties, Fleda; do you?"

"I don't know," said Fleda, whose natural taste for society was strongly developed; "it would depend upon what kind of parties they were."

"I shouldn't like them, I know, of whatever kind," said Hugh.

"What are you smiling at?"

"Only Mr. Pickwick's face, that I am drawing here."

Hugh came round to look and laugh, and then began again.

"I can't think of anything pleasanter than this room as we are now."

"You should have seen Mr. Carleton's library," said Fleda, in a musing tone, going on with her drawing.

"Was it so much better than this?"

Fleda's eyes gave a slight glance at the room, and then looked down again with a little shake of her head sufficiently expressive.

"Well," said Hugh, "you and I do not want any better than this; do we, Fleda?"

Fleda's smile ? a most satisfactory one ? was divided between him and King.

"I don't believe," said Hugh, "you would have loved that dog near so well if anybody else had given him to you."

"I don't believe I should! ? not a quarter," said Fleda, with sufficient distinctness.

"I never liked that Mr. Carleton as well as you did."

"That is because you did not know him," said Fleda, quietly.

"Do you think he was a good man, Fleda?"

"He was very good to me," said Fleda, "always. What rides I did have on that great black horse of his!" ?

"A black horse?"

"Yes, a great black horse, strong, but so gentle, and he went so delightfully. His name was Harold. Oh, I should like to see that horse! When I wasn't with him, Mr. Carleton used to ride another, the greatest beauty of a horse, Hugh ? a brown Arabian ? so slender and delicate ? her name was Zephyr, and she used to go like the wind, to be sure. Mr. Carleton said he wouldn't trust me on such a fly-away thing."

"But you didn't use to ride alone?" said Hugh.

"O no! ? and I wouldn't have been afraid if he had chosen to take me on any one."

"But do you think, Fleda, he was a good man ? as I mean?"

"I am sure he was better than a great many others," answered Fleda, evasively ? "the worst of him was infinitely better than the best of half the people down stairs ? Mr. Sweden included."

"Sweden! ? you don't call his name right."

"The worse it is called the better, in my opinion," said Fleda.

"Well, I don't like him; but what makes you dislike him so much?"

"I don't know ? partly because Uncle Rolf and Marion like him so much, I believe ? I don't think there is any moral expression in his face."

"I wonder why they like him," said Hugh.

It was a somewhat irregular and desultory education that the two children gathered under this system of things. The masters they had were rather for accomplishments and languages than for anything solid ? the rest they worked out for themselves.

Fortunately they both loved books, and rational books; and hours and hours, when Mrs. Rossitur and her daughter were paying or receiving visits, they, always together, were stowed away behind the book-cases or in the library window, poring patiently over pages of various complexion ? the soft turning of the leaves, or Fleda's frequent attentions to King, the only sound in the room. They walked together, talking of what they had read, though, indeed, they ranged beyond that into nameless and numberless fields of speculation, where, if they sometimes found fruit, they as often lost their way. However, the habit of ranging was something. Then when they joined the rest of the family at the dinner-table, especially if others were present, and most especially if a certain German gentleman happened to be there, who, the second winter after their return, Fleda thought came very often, she and Hugh would be sure to find the strange talk of the world that was going on unsuited and wearisome to them, and they would make their escape up-stairs again to handle the pencil, and to play the flute, and to read, and to draw plans for the future, while King crept upon the skirts of his mistress's gown, and laid his little head on her feet. n.o.body ever thought of sending them to school. Hugh was a child of frail health, and though not often very ill, was often near it; and as for Fleda, she and Hugh were inseparable, and besides, by this time her uncle and aunt would almost as soon have thought of taking the mats off their delicate shrubs in winter, as of exposing her to any atmosphere less genial than that of home.

For Fleda, this doubtful course of mental training wrought singularly well. An uncommonly quick eye, and strong memory, and clear head, which she had even in childhood, pa.s.sed over no field of truth or fancy without making their quiet gleanings; and the stores thus gathered, though somewhat miscellaneous and unarranged, were both rich and uncommon, and more than any one or she herself knew. Perhaps such a mind thus left to itself knew a more free and luxuriant growth than could ever have flourished within the confinement of rules ?

perhaps a plant at once so strong and so delicate was safest without the hand of the dresser ? at all events it was permitted to spring and to put forth all its native gracefulness alike unhindered and unknown. Cherished as little Fleda dearly was, her mind kept company with no one but herself ? and Hugh. As to externals; music was uncommonly loved by both the children, and by both cultivated with great success. So much came under Mrs. Rossitur's knowledge; also every foreign Signor and Madame that came into the house to teach them spoke with enthusiasm of the apt minds and flexible tongues that honoured their instructions. In private and in public, the gentle, docile, and affectionate children answered every wish, both of taste and judgment. And perhaps, in a world where education is not understood, their guardians might be pardoned for taking it for granted that all was right where nothing appeared that was wrong ? certainly they took no pains to make sure of the fact. In this case, one of a thousand, their neglect was not punished with disappointment. They never found out that Hugh's mind wanted the strengthening that early skilful training might have given it. His intellectual tastes were not so strong as Fleda's ? his reading was more superficial ? his gleanings not so sound, and in far fewer fields, and they went rather to nourish sentiment and fancy than to stimulate thought, or lay up food for it. But his parents saw nothing of this.

The third winter had not pa.s.sed, when Fleda's discernment saw that Mr. Sweden, as she called him, the German gentleman, would not cease coming to the house till he had carried off Marion with him. Her opinion on the subject was delivered to no one but Hugh.

That winter introduced them to a better acquaintance. One evening Dr. Gregory, an uncle of Mrs. Rossitur's, had been dining with her, and was in the drawing-room. Mr. Schwiden had been there too, and he and Marion, and one or two other young people, had gone out to some popular entertainment. The children knew little of Dr. Gregory, but that he was a very respectable-looking elderly gentleman, a little rough in his manners. The doctor had not long been returned from a stay of some years in Europe, where he had been collecting rare books for a fine public library, the charge of which was now entrusted to him. After talking some time with Mr. and Mrs.

Rossitur, the doctor pushed round his chair to take a look at the children.

"So that's Amy's child," said he. "Come here, Amy."

"That is not my name," said the little girl, coming forward.

"Isn't it? It ought to be. What is, then?"

"Elfleda."

"Elfleda! where in the name of all that is auricular did you get such an outlandish name?"

"My father gave it to me, Sir," said Fleda, with a dignified sobriety which amused the old gentleman.

"Your father! ? hum ? I understand. And couldn't your father find a cap that fitted you without going back to the old- fas.h.i.+oned days of King Alfred?"

"Yes, Sir; it was my grandmother's cap."

"I am afraid your grandmother's cap isn't all of her that's come down to you," said he, tapping his snuff-box, and looking at her with a curious twinkle in his eyes. "What do you call yourself? Haven't you some variations of this tongue-twisting appellative to serve for every day, and save trouble?"

"They call me Fleda," said the little girl, who could not help laughing.

"Nothing better than that?"

Fleda remembered two prettier nicknames which had been her's; but one had been given by dear lips long ago, and she was not going to have it profaned by common use; and "Elfie" belonged to Mr. Carleton. She would own to nothing but Fleda.

"Well, Miss Fleda," said the doctor, "are you going to school?"

"No, Sir."

"You intend to live without such a vulgar thing as learning?"