Through Welsh Doorways Part 11

Except for the quick flexing of the muscles in his forehead and the dilation of his eyes Ariel betrayed no emotion. The oriel window jutting over the street had been transformed; he saw no longer the clear gla.s.s of the stairway-light common to Ty Mawr and the other houses of Glaslyn, but a crimson cat, fore-feet in air, blazoned on a green background, each quarter of the oriel brilliant with a yellow star and the whole device bound together with a chaplet of rope.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BETTO GRIFFITHS LAUGHED.]

"It _does_ make a pretty light!" he exclaimed thoughtfully; "prettier,"

he added with pride, "than I had any idea it would."

The women stared at him.

"Aye, an' it's prettier within," he continued; "it sheds such a bright colour on dark days."

"No, is it so!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Mrs. Parry Wynn.

"Aye, it is so," replied Ariel. "Out of Glaslyn ye see many coloured windows like this in private houses--smart houses of course."

"Just fancy!" responded Mrs. Jeezer Morris, "we've seen them in churches, the Nonconformists as well as the Established, but we've never heard of coloured windows before in a village house, especially not with such a cat----"

"Aye, the cat!" interrupted Ariel, in a caressing voice, the far-away, much-reverenced look of the poet in his eyes, "that cat is a copy from a--medal taken from--the sar-coph-a-gus of Tiglath Pileser II. Aye," he added dreamily, "the cat, the sacred symbol of Egypt, holy to the Muses, beloved of----"

"Mr. Jenkins, ye don't say so!" they all exclaimed, looking with curious glances at the oriel window.

"I will say," nodded Mrs. Gomer Roberts, "that it has an uncommonly intelligent look."

"Aye, so it has," agreed Mrs. Parry Wynn, "intelligent an'--an'--lively."

Betto Griffiths glanced about the little group shrewdly.

"An' the stars, Mr. Jenkins?" she said.

"Tut, the _star_! Betto Griffiths, ye don't say ye don't know the meanin' of the five-pointed star, sacred to history, to sacred history, guide in the----"

"Oh, aye!" interrupted Betto, "if _that's_ the star ye mean, I certainly do."

The little gathering took a fresh look at the window; their eyes lingered reverently now on the emblazoned group of cat and stars leashed together with yellow rope.

"Aye, it's a wonderful idea!" a.s.serted Mrs. Jeezer Morris, from her superior position and knowledge.

"Aye, wonderful!" solemnly affirmed the rest.

"I'm thinkin'," said Betto Griffiths, an undisciplined look in her eyes, "Mrs. Jenkins made it?"

"Mrs. Jenkins! Oh, no!" exclaimed Ariel, thrusting his hands into his trousers pockets, "I did it."

"Ye did!" they all exclaimed, admiringly.

"Mr. Jenkins," continued Mrs. Parry Wynn, whose husband, the baker, had been standing across the street not more than a half-hour ago laughing over the crimson cat _rampant_, blazoned on the green field, "Mr.

Jenkins, if Mr. Wynn thinks he could afford something like it, would ye be willin'----"

"Aye, gladly," returned Ariel, "but it's expensive, Mrs. Wynn."

"Oh!" chorused the women, in deferential voices.

"But I'm thinkin'," continued Ariel, "through my connection as a merchant I might be able to obtain the material at less expense an'----"

"If ye could!" clamoured the little group.

"Mr. Jenkins, if Mr. Roberts----" broke in Mrs. Roberts.

"Mr. Jenkins, if Mr. Morris----" interrupted Mrs. Morris.

"Won't ye come in?" asked Ariel, placidly interrupting them all. "I'm certain ye will like the light even better from the inside where it falls in such pleasin' colours on the landin'. When I was workin' on it last night by moonlight the colours were like fairyland."

"Aye, it's only a poet could have conceived this," said Mrs. Morris, with a.s.surance, "only a poet!"

"Only a poet!" echoed the rest.

"But won't ye come in? Mrs. Jenkins will be glad to see ye."

"Aye, thank ye, 'twould be a pleasure!" And flock-like they followed Ariel into the house.

Mrs. Jenkins's eyes were red, and there was the furtive aspect of a trapped animal about her; but when she saw their eager faces and heard their enthusiastic and admiring exclamations as they crowded into the stairway landing, there was a look of surprise first, and then of delight upon her face.

"Mr. Jenkins tells me ye didn't make it yourself," said Betto Griffiths, suspicion still on her sharp features.

"Well, it came," replied Janny, glancing appealingly at Ariel, "it--came from Liverpool."

"Janny _dear_," corrected Ariel, with a look straight into her eyes, "ye mean the _material_ did."

"Aye, Ariel," answered Janny, with a mixture of childlike obedience and confusion, "aye, just the material."

Ariel talked a great deal; the window was admired, commented upon, there were demands for future a.s.sistance, envious exclamations of delight to Mrs. Jenkins, who was given no chance to say a word, and the little group departed.

"Well, Janny!" exclaimed Ariel.

"Ariel _dear_, I--I saw them--them laughin' an'--then--ye," the flood-gates burst and Janny threw herself sobbing into Ariel's arms.

"There, there, _dear_, little lamb!" he comforted, his own eyes wet with tears.

"I thought--thought it would--be so--pretty--an' people's been--expectin' me--to--to make changes--an'--an'--Betto Griffiths said improvements, an' Ariel--I--I----" Janny's voice caught and she sobbed afresh.

"Tut, tut, little lamb, dearie, don't. Janny, Janny, don't cry."

"Ariel, I saw--the--men--laughin' an'--an' slappin' their knees--an'--an' pointin' at the window--an' even--little Silvan runnin'

by--laughed, an' then when Betto Griffiths----" Janny faltered, gulping.

"Pooh, little lamb, Betto Griffiths!" exclaimed Ariel derisively, "Betto Griffiths is an ignorant woman. An', dearie, didn't ye hear them all askin' me to help them to get windows like this?"

"But, Ariel, didn't ye laugh at all?"