Part 10 (1/2)
”How strange it is, Miss Estill, that I have never met you before, for it seems as though I have known you for years!”
”Why, Mr. Warlow, I was just trying to recall the time and place where I had seen you. It must have been while we were traveling that we have been thrown together for a moment; yet I can not now remember the circ.u.mstance,” she replied, with a look of interest dawning in her blue eyes.
”If we had I would not have forgotten such a pleasant incident, Miss Estill. But I am puzzled to think why I remember even your tone and manner so well, for I can't recall any chance meeting with you in the past.”
At that moment Grace and Hugh Estill came up, and proposed that they should repair to the river, near by, and spend an hour fis.h.i.+ng; so they soon were seated under the shade of an enormous cottonwood-tree on the banks of a deep pool, while Hugh and Grace, who had been introduced at some former meeting, strayed along the stream in quest of a ”better place,” which they did not discover in _sight or hearing_ of Miss Estill and Clifford.
After casting their hooks into the quiet water, they sat down upon the shady bank, and Miss Estill said:--
”Hugh has often spoken of you lately, and we had discussed the subject of calling on your sister and Miss Moreland, but decided that we would send you an invitation to our picnic, at which I hoped to become acquainted with them.” Then, seeing a shade of disappointment flit over his face, she added, archly: ”And you also. But I a.s.sure you that the call will not be deferred a great while longer; for I am delighted to find such charming girls for neighbors.”
”The invitation was very kind and thoughtful of you, Miss Estill. We had been longing to meet congenial companions, and hailed the news of the picnic with all the delight of people who have been isolated from society for a year or more. I hope you will believe it is no vain compliment when I tell you that I have already met new friends here that I value higher than any of my old ones,” Clifford replied, as he knotted a bunch of elder-bloom, snowy and fragrant, with the blossoms of the wild heart's-ease, azure and gold, which grew on the sandy stretch at their feet. Then, adding a fern-like tuft of meadow-fescue, he held it toward Miss Estill, while a look of undisguised admiration shone in his clear blue eyes, saying:--
”In memory of my deep grat.i.tude.”
Fastening the flowers among the meshes of lace on her breast, she busied herself a moment with the fis.h.i.+ng-tackle as she drew the hook from the water with a dangerous movement. Then, with a smile dimpling her face, she said:--
”If you feel such a deep sense of grat.i.tude, Mr. Warlow, you may discharge the debt by baiting my hook, which some wary turtle or other aquatic creature, has been investigating.”
With ready alacrity, Clifford performed the desired service; and as he let go the hook, Miss Estill began a series of manoeuvres with the fish-pole that were as womanly as they were threatening. Finally, after the hook had performed for some time around his head with a dangerous ”s-w-i-s-h,” it fortunately landed plump into the water, with a thud and splash loud enough to scare all the fish upon dry land.
They stood a moment, silently watching the widening ripple; then, as they seated themselves on the bank again, Miss Estill said, with a smile:--
”You are very brave, indeed, Mr. Warlow, never to wince. But perhaps you were not aware of the great risk a man runs who fishes with a woman. I never should have forgiven myself if that awkward hook had caught in your eye.”
”Or my ear,” he added, with such a look of comic distress that she dropped her fish-pole into the water with a merry laugh; then, as he joined in the merriment, the startled mocking-bird overhead hushed its song, and flitted away to some quieter nook.
”Now, if we are not more careful, we will have to dine on humility to-day,” she said, as he recovered the fis.h.i.+ng-tackle. ”But do you really grow lonesome in your new home, Mr. Warlow?” she added.
”Yes, indeed I did,” said Clifford, with an emphasis on the past tense that indicated the remoteness of those days. ”But we were very busy until recently, and I did not fully realize what a hermit I had become until I came here into the crowd, and found myself growing hot and cold by turns, my heart palpitating, and my hands and feet getting heavy.
Then I knew it would only be a matter of time when I should fly, like a South Sea Islander, at very sight of a human face, much less the presence of a fas.h.i.+onable young lady;” and he joined Miss Estill's merriment at his charming candor, with an easy laugh.
”Oh, I appreciate the situation,” she replied; ”for when they sent me to Cincinnati to the boarding-school, where all was so strange, and the only ray of suns.h.i.+ne in the long weeks, months, and years was a flitting call from my fas.h.i.+onable aunt, or the yearly visits to my Western home, I felt desolate and miserable. Why, I was so shy, and possibly a bit wild, that I gained the name of Antelope among my school-mates;” and Miss Estill smiled somewhat sadly at remembrance of those past days.
”When you returned to your home, it certainly must have seemed lonely after the life in that 'American Florence,'” said young Warlow.
”Oh, it was paradise! I could scarcely believe that the old days of banishment were over; and indeed I half feared, sometimes, that they would pack me off again. It was such a perfect joy to be back at the dear old ranch once more with Hugh and my parents, that I vowed I should never leave again. But when I had been back a year I did sometimes long for a good, confidential chat with my girl friends, and would be a bit lonesome while Hugh was away; but our life is one ceaseless round of labor, toil, and care, so I have short time for repining. Would you believe, Mr. Warlow, that more than half the time all the duties of housekeeper, unaided, devolve upon me? Our house has been a constant panorama of 'domestic' weddings since I returned from school; yes, and for years before also. No sooner would we begin to appreciate some household treasure--a Nora, Ruth, or Nelly, who had come from the East to lessen our domestic burdens--than along would come some spruce ranchman or handsome young homesteader, and--presto!--our domestic was courted away in a twinkling to brighten a new home. And what with the wedding which mamma always insists upon, and the bridal finery she bestows, the burden is redoubled. My weary shoulders fairly ache as we pa.s.s through the constant, or tri-yearly, recurrence of the same experience. Hugh says that he believes the servant-girls of the East have finally come to look upon our house as a matrimonial agency.”
”Do you not think, Miss Estill, that the bright new homes, which are a result of your charities, are sufficient reward for your domestic martyrdom?”
”Oh, if you think our providing wives for the miscellaneous ranchers, herders, and homesteaders could be called a charity, I will have to say that our furthering of those matches has proved a mixed blessing indeed; for I recall a world of conjugal infelicity which has followed those hasty and ofttimes ill-a.s.sorted matches. 'Marry at pleasure,' etc., is a maxim true as it is trite, Mr. Warlow.”
”Yes; it is undeniable that unhappy matings do occur; but I can not see how a lonesome bachelor, who eats his own vile cooking and goes through the vain ceremony of laundry-work, could ever aggravate his deplorable condition, Miss Estill.”
”But the fact remains that he certainly does,” she replied, with a low gurgling laugh, like the ripple of some sweet, clear brook. ”Why, Mr.
Warlow, I recall a scene of which I was the innocent witness one evening last month. I was riding by the ranch of Mr. Blank, who had wooed and won our cook after a courts.h.i.+p that was as brief as it was fervid. I have reason to believe he pines for his former state of untrammeled freedom; for, in some argument which they seemed to be discussing that evening, she, his faithful helpmeet, hurled the milk-stool at his head.
I rode quickly away, mentally was.h.i.+ng my hands of any further matrimonial schemes.
”Mr. Warlow! a fish, a fis.h.!.+” she cried in a low tone, and he turned his eyes reluctantly to the sadly neglected fis.h.i.+ng-tackle, which he had ”set” by thrusting the poles into the bank, and which they, in their long and absorbing conversation, had totally forgotten. There he saw the flash of a finny monster in the water, and the fish-pole violently thres.h.i.+ng in the air above the pond, and as he drew the glittering perch from the pool, he found that it had become entangled in Miss Estill's fish-line also.