Queechy Volume I Part 69

"You look just as you used to do," Mrs. Evelyn went on, earnestly.

"Do I?" said Fleda, privately thinking that the lady must have good eyes for features of resemblance.

"Except that you have more colour in your cheeks and more sparkles in your eyes. Dear little creature that you were; I want to make you know my children. Do you remember that Mr.

and Mrs. Carleton that took such care of you at Montepoole?"

"Certainly I do! ? very well."

"We saw them last winter; we were down at their country place in ? s.h.i.+re. They have a magnificent place there ? everything you can think of to make life pleasant. We spent a week with them. My dear Fleda, I wish I could show you that place! you never saw anything like it."

Fleda ate her pie.

"We have nothing like it in this country; of course, cannot have. One of those superb English country seats is beyond even the imagination of an American."

"Nature has been as kind to us, hasn't she?" said Fleda.

"O yes; but such fortunes, you know. Mr. Olmney, what do you think of those overgrown fortunes? I was speaking to Miss Ringgan just now of a gentleman who has forty thousand pounds a year income ? sterling, Sir; forty thousand pounds a year sterling. Somebody says, you know, that 'he who has more than enough is a thief of the rights of his brother' ? what do you think?"

But Mr. Olmney's attention was at the moment forcibly called off by the "income" of a paris.h.i.+oner.

"I suppose," said Fleda, "his thievish character must depend entirely on the use he makes of what he has."

"I don't know," said Mrs. Evelyn, shaking her head; "I think the possession of great wealth is very hardening."

"To a fine nature?" said Fleda.

Mrs. Evelyn shook her head again, but did not seem to think it worth while to reply; and Fleda was trying the question in her own mind whether wealth or poverty might be the most hardening in its effects; when Mr. Olmney, having succeeded in getting free again, came and took his station beside them, and they had a particularly pleasant talk, which Fleda, who had seen n.o.body in a great while, enjoyed very much. They had several such talks in the course of the day; for though the distractions caused by Mr. Olmney's other friends were many and engrossing, he generally contrived in time to find his way back to their window. Meanwhile, Mrs. Evelyn had a great deal to say to Fleda, and to hear from her; and left her at last under an engagement to spend the next day at the Pool.

Upon Mr. Olmney's departure with Mrs. Evelyn, the attraction which had held the company together was broken, and they scattered fast. Fleda presently finding herself in the minority, was glad to set out with Miss Anastasia Finn, and her sister Lucy, who would leave her but very little way from her own door. But she had more company than she bargained for.

Dr. Quackenboss was pleased to attach himself to their party, though his own shortest road certainly lay in another direction; and Fleda wondered what he had done with his wagon, which, beyond a question, must have brought the cheese in the morning. She edged herself out of the conversation as much as possible, and hoped it would prove so agreeable that he would not think of attending her home. In vain. When they made a stand at the cross roads the doctor stood on her side.

"I hope now you've made a commencement, you will come to see us again, Fleda," said Miss Lucy.

"What's the use of asking?" said her sister, abruptly. "If she has a mind to, she will, and if she ha'n't, I am sure we don't want her."

They turned off.

"Those are excellent people," said the doctor, when they were beyond hearing; "really respectable!"

"Are they?" said Fleda.

"But your goodness does not look, I am sure, to find ? a ?

Parisian graces in so remote a circle?"

"Certainly not," said Fleda.

"We have had a genial day!" said the doctor, quitting the Finns.

"I don't know," said Fleda, permitting a little of her inward merriment to work off; "I think it has been rather too hot."

"Yes," said the doctor, "the sun has been ardent; but I referred rather to the ? a ? to the warming of affections, and the pleasant exchange of intercourse on all sides which has taken place. How do you like our ? a ? the stranger?"

"Who, Sir?"

"The new-comer ? this young Mr. Ummin?"

Fleda answered, but she hardly knew what, for she was musing whether the doctor would go away or come in. They reached the door, and Fleda invited him, with terrible effort after her voice; the doctor having just blandly offered an opinion upon the decided polish of Mr. Olmney's manners.

CHAPTER XXIII.

"Labour is light, where love (quoth I) doth pay; (Saith he) light burthens heavy, if far borne."

DRAYTON.

Fleda pushed open the parlour door, and preceded her convoy, in a kind of tip-toe state of spirits. The first thing that met her eyes was her aunt, in one of the few handsome silks which were almost her sole relic of past wardrobe prosperity, and with a face uncommonly happy and pretty; and the next instant she saw the explanation of this appearance in her cousin Charlton, a little palish, but looking better than she had ever seen him, and another gentleman, of whom her eye took in only the general outlines of fas.h.i.+on and comfortable circ.u.mstances, now too strange to it to go unnoted. In Fleda's usual mood her next movement would have been made with a demureness that would have looked like bashfulness. But the amus.e.m.e.nt and pleasure of the day just pa.s.sed had for the moment set her spirits free from the burden that generally bound them down; and they were as elastic as her step, as she came forward and presented to her aunt "Dr. Quackenboss," and then turned to shake her cousin's hand.

"Charlton! ? Where did you come from? We didn't expect you so soon."

"You are not sorry to see me, I hope?"

"Not at all ? very glad;" ? and then as her eye glanced towards the other new-comer, Charlton presented to her "Mr.

Thorn," and Fleda's fancy made a sudden quick leap on the instant to the old hall at Montepoole, and the shot dog. And then Dr. Quackenboss was presented, an introduction which Captain Rossitur received coldly, and Mr. Thorn with something more than frigidity.

The doctor's elasticity, however, defied depression, especially in the presence of a silk dress and a military coat. Fleda presently saw that he was agonizing her uncle.

Mrs. Rossitur had drawn close to her son. Fleda was left to take care of the other visitor. The young men had both seemed more struck at the vision presented to them than she had been on her part. She thought neither of them was very ready to speak to her.

"I did not know," said Mr. Thorn, softly, "what reason I had to thank Rossitur for bringing me home with him to-night ? he promised me a supper and a welcome ? but I find he did not tell me the half of my entertainment."

"That was wise in him," said Fleda; "the half that is not expected is always worth a great deal more than the other."

"In this case, most a.s.suredly," said Thorn, bowing, and, Fleda was sure, not knowing what to make of her.

"Have you been in Mexico, too, Mr. Thorn?"

"Not I! ? that's an entertainment I beg to decline. I never felt inclined to barter an arm for a shoulder-knot, or to abridge my usual means of locomotion for the privilege of riding on parade ? or selling one's-self for a name. Peter Schlemil's selling his shadow I can understand; but this is really lessening one's-self that one's shadow may grow the larger."

"But you were in the army?" said Fleda.

"Yes, it wasn't my doing. There is a time, you know, when one must please the old folks ? I grew old enough and wise enough to cut loose from the army before I had gained or lost much by it."

He did not understand the displeased gravity of Fleda's face, and went on insinuatingly ?

"Unless I have lost what Charlton has gained ? something I did not know hung upon the decision ? Perhaps you think a man is taller for having iron heels to his boots?"