Queechy Volume Ii Part 94

said Fleda; ? "I had been thinking of all these things ?"

"And what else?"

Her colour and her silence begged him not to ask. He said no more, and let her stand still again, looking off through the roses, while her mind more quietly and lightly went over the same train of thoughts that had moved it before; gradually calmed; came back from being a stranger to being at home, at least in one presence; and ended, her action even before her look told him where, as her other hand unconsciously was joined to the one already on his arm. A mute expression of feeling, the full import of which he read, even before her eye, coming back from its musings, was raised to him, perhaps unconsciously, too, with all the mind in it; its timidity was not more apparent than its simplicity of clinging affection and dependence. Mr. Carleton's answer was in three words, but in the tone and manner that accompanied them there was a response to every part of her appeal ? so perfect that Fleda was confused at her own frankness.

They began to move towards the house, but Fleda was in a maze again and could hardly realize anything. "His wife!" ? was she that? ? had so marvellous a change really been wrought in her?

? the little asparagus-cutter of Queechy transformed into the mistress of all this domain, and of the stately mansion of which they caught glimpses now and then, as they drew near it by another approach into which Mr. Carleton had diverged. And his wife! ? that was the hardest to realise of all.

She was as far from realising it when she got into the house.

They entered now at once into the breakfast-room, where the same party were gathered whom she had met once before that morning. Mr. Carleton the elder, and Lord Peterborough and Lady Peterborough, she had met without seeing. But Fleda could look at them now; and if her colour came and went as frankly as when she was a child, she could speak to them and meet their advances with the same free and sweet self-possession as then ? the rare dignity a little wood-flower, that is moved by a breath, but recovers as easily and instantly its quiet standing. There were one or two who looked a little curiously at first to see whether this new member of the family were worthy of her place and would fill it to satisfy them. Not Mr.

Carleton; he never sought to ascertain the value of anything that belonged to him by a popular vote; and his own judgment always stood carelessly alone. But Mrs. Carleton was less sure of her own ground, or of others. For five minutes she noted Fleda's motions and words, her blushes and smiles, as she stood talking to one and another ? for five minutes, and then, with a little smile at her sister, Mrs. Carleton moved off to the breakfast-table, well pleased that Lady Peterborough was too engaged to answer her. Fleda had won them all. Mr.

Carleton's intervening s.h.i.+eld of grace and kindness was only needed here against the too much attention or attraction that might distress her. He was again, now they were in presence of others, exactly what he had been to her when she was a child ?

the same cool and efficient friend and protector. n.o.body in the room showed less thought of her, _except_ in action; a great many little things done for her pleasure or comfort, so quietly that n.o.body knew it but one person, and she hardly noticed it at the time. All could not have the same tact.

There was an uninterrupted easy flow of talk at the table, which Fleda heard just enough to join in where it was necessary; the rest of the time she sat in a kind of abstraction, dipping enormous strawberries one by one into white sugar, with a curious want of recognition between them and the ends of her fingers; it never occurred to her that they had picked baskets full.

"I have done something for which you will hardly thank me, Mr.

Carleton," said Lord Peterborough. "I have driven this lady to tears within the first hour of her being in the house."

"If she will forgive you, I will, my lord," Mr. Carleton answered, carelessly.

"I will confess myself, though," continued his lords.h.i.+p, looking at the face that was so intent over the strawberries, "I was under the impression, when I first saw a figure in the window, that it was Lady Peterborough. I own, as soon as I found it was a stranger, I had my suspicions, which did not lack confirmation in the course of the interview. I trust I am forgiven the means I used."

"It seems you had your curiosity, too, my lord," said Mr.

Carleton, the uncle.

"Which ought, in all justice, to have lacked gratification,"

said Lady Peterborough. "I hope Fleda will not be too ready to forgive you."

"I expect forgiveness, nevertheless," said he, looking at Fleda. "Must I wait for it?"

"I am much obliged to you, Sir."

And then she gave him a very frank smile and blush, as she added, "I beg pardon ? you know my tongue is American."

"I don't like that," said his lords.h.i.+p, gravely.

"Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh," said the elder Carleton. "The heart being English, we may hope the tongue will become so too."

"I will not a.s.sure you of that, Sir," Fleda said, laughing, though her cheeks showed the conversation was not carried on without effort. Oddly enough, n.o.body saw it with any dissatisfaction.

"Of what, Madam?" said Lord Peterborough.

"That I will not always keep a rag of the stars and stripes flying somewhere."

But that little speech had almost been too much for her equanimity.

"Like Queen Elizabeth, who retained the crucifix when she gave up the profession of Popery."

"Very unlike indeed!" said Fleda, endeavouring to understand what Mr. Carleton was saying to her about wood strawberries and _hautbois_.

"Will you allow that, Carleton?"

"What, my lord?"

"A rival banner to float alongside of St. George's?"

"The flags are friendly, my lord."

"Hum ? just now ? they may seem so. Has your little standard- bearer anything of a rebellious disposition."

"Not against any lawful authority, I hope," said Fleda.

"Then there is hope for you, Mr. Carleton, that you will be able to prevent the introduction of mischievous doctrines."

"For shame, Lord Peterborough!' said his wife ? "what atrocious suppositions you are making! I am blus.h.i.+ng, I am sure, for your want of discernment."

"Why ? yes" ? said his lords.h.i.+p, looking at another face whose blushes were more unequivocal ? "it may seem so ? there is no appearance of anything untoward, but she is a woman after all.

I will try her. Mrs. Carleton, don't you think with my Lady Peterborough that in the present nineteenth century women ought to stand more on that independent footing from which lordly monopoly has excluded them?"

The first name Fleda thought belonged to another person, and her downcast eyelids prevented her seeing to whom it was addressed. It was no matter, for any answer was antic.i.p.ated.

"The boast of independence is not engrossed by the boldest footing, my lord."

"She has never considered the subject," said Lady Peterborough.

"It is no matter," said his lords.h.i.+p. "I must respectfully beg an answer to my question."

The silence made Fleda look up.

"Don't you think that the rights of the weak ought to be on a perfect equality with those of the strong?"

"The rights of the weak _as such_ ? yes, my lord."

The gentlemen smiled; the ladies looked rather puzzled.

"I have no more to say, Mr. Carleton," said his lords.h.i.+p, "but that we must make an Englishwoman of her!"

"I am afraid she will never be a perfect cure," said Mr.

Carleton, smiling.

"I conceive it might require peculiar qualities in the physician ? but I do not despair. I was telling her of some of your doings this morning, and happy to see that they met with her entire disapproval."

Mr. Carleton did not even glance towards Fleda, and made no answer, but carelessly gave the conversation another turn; for which she thanked him unspeakably.

There was no other interruption of any consequence to the well-bred flow of talk and kindliness of manner on the part of all the company, that put Fleda as much as possible at her ease. Still she did not realise anything, and yet she did realise it so strongly, that her woman's heart could not rest till it had eased itself in tears. The superbly appointed table at which she sat ? her own, though Mrs. Carleton this morning presided ? the like of which she had not seen since she was at Carleton before; the beautiful room with its arrangements, bringing back a troop of recollections of that old time; all the magnificence about her, instead of elevating, sobered her spirits to the last degree. It pressed home upon her that feeling of responsibility, of the change that come over her; and though beneath it all very happy, Fleda hardly knew it, she longed so to be alone, and to cry.

One person's eyes, however little seemingly observant of her, read sufficiently well the unusual shaded air of her brow and her smile. But a sudden errand of business called him abroad immediately after breakfast.

The ladies seized the opportunity to carry Fleda up and introduce her to her dressing-room, and take account of Lady Peterborough's commission, and ladies and ladies' maids soon formed a busy committee of dress and decorations. It did not enliven Fleda ? it wearied her, though she forgave them the annoyance in grat.i.tude for the pleasure they took in looking at her. Even the delight her eye had from the first minute she saw it, in the beautiful room, and her quick sense of the carefulness with which it had been arranged for her, added to the feeling with which she was oppressed; she was very pa.s.sive in the hands of her friends.