Part 11 (1/2)
It was a big, square hall running through from front to back, and the back door was open, and you saw a garden with box hedges, and woods behind it. Stairs went up each side the hall and a balcony ran around the second story, with bedrooms opening off it. There was a high, oval window at the back over the balcony, and the sun poured through.
”The girl finished locking her bag as if she hadn't noticed sc.u.m of the earth like us, and then she deliberately picked up a bunch of long white flowers that lay by the bag--lilies, I think you call them--and stood up, and looked right past me, as if she was struck with the landscape, and didn't see me. She was a tall girl, and when she stood straight the light from the back window just hit her hair and shone through the loose part of it--there was a lot, and it was curly. I give you my word that, as she stood there and looked calmly beyond me, in her white dress, with the stalk of flowers over her shoulder, and the sun turning that wonderful red-gold hair into a halo--I give you my word she was a perfect picture of a saint out of a stained-gla.s.s window in a church.
But she didn't act like one.”
The General was seized with sudden, irresistible laughter. He sobered quickly.
”I took one look at the vision, and I knew it was all up with me. Talk about love at first sight--before she ever spoke a word I--well.” He pulled up the sentence as if it were a horse. ”I s.n.a.t.c.hed off my cap and I said, said I, 'I'm very sorry to disturb you,' just as politely as I knew how, but all the answer she gave me was to glance across at the old lady. Then she went find put her arm around her as she lay back gasping in a great curved chair.
”'Don't be afraid, Aunt Virginia,' she said. 'Nothing shall hurt you. I can manage this man.'
”The way she said 'this man' was about as contemptuous as they make 'em.
I guess she was right, too--I guess she could. She turned her head toward me, but did not look at me.
”'Do you want anything here?'” she asked.
”Her voice was the prettiest, softest sound you ever heard--she was mad as a hornet, too.” The General's swift chuckle caught him. ”'Hyer,' she said it,” he repeated. ”'Hyer.'” He liked to say it, evidently. ”I stood holding my cap in my hand, so tame by this time you could have put me on a perch in a cage, for the pluck of the girl was as fascinating as her looks. I spoke up like a man all the same.
”'I wanted to ask,' said I, 'if I might send my men around to your well for a drink of water. They're thirsty.'
”The way she answered, looking all around me and never once at me, made me uncomfortable. 'I suppose you can if you wish,' she said. 'You're stronger than we are. You can take what you choose. But I won't give you anything--not if you were dying--not a gla.s.s of water.'
”Well, in spite of her having played football with my heart, that made me angry.
”'I didn't know before that to be Southern made a woman unwomanly,' I said. 'Where I came from I don't believe there's a girl would say a cruel thing like that or refuse a drink of cold water to soldiers doing their duty, friends or enemies. We've slept on the ground nine nights and ridden nine days, and had very little to eat--my men are tired and thirsty. I shan't make them go without any refreshment they can get, even if it is grudged.'
”I gave an order over my shoulder, and my party went off to the back of the house. Then I made a low bow to the old lady and to Miss High-and-Mighty, and I swung about and walked down the steps and mounted my horse. I was parched for water, but I wouldn't have had it if I'd choked, after that. Between taking an almighty s.h.i.+ne to the girl and getting stirred up that way, and then being all frozen over with icicles by her cool insultingness, I was pretty savage, and I stared away from the place and thought the men would never come. All of a sudden I felt something touch my arm, and I looked around quick, and there was the girl. She stood by the horse, her red hair close to my elbow as I sat in the saddle, and she held up a gla.s.s of water. I never was so astonished in my life.
”'You're thirsty and tired, too,' she said, speaking as low as if she was afraid the horse might hear. 'For my self-respect--for Southern women'--she brought it out in that soft, sliding way, but the words were all mixed up with embarra.s.sment--and red--my, but she blushed! Then she went on. 'You were right,' said she. 'I was cruel; you're my enemy and I hate you, but I ought not to grudge you water. Take it.'
”I put my hand right on top of hers as she held the gla.s.s, and bent down and drank so, making her hold it to my lips, and my hand over hers--bless her heart!”
The General came to a full stop. He was smiling into the fire, and his face was as if a flame burned back of it. I waited very quietly, fearing to change the current by a word, and in a moment the strong voice, with its vibrating note, not to be described, began again.
”I drained every drop,” he said, ”I'd have drunk a hogshead. When I finished I raised my head and looked down at her without a word said--but I didn't let go of the gla.s.s with her hand holding it inside mine--and she lifted her eyes very slowly, and for the first time looked at me. Well--” he shut his lips a moment--”these things don't tell well, but something happened. I held her eyes into mine, us if I gripped them with my muscles, and there came over her face an extraordinary expression--first as if she was surprised that it was me, then as if she was glad, and then--well, you may believe it or not, but I knew that second that the girl--loved me. She hated me all right five minutes before--I was her people's enemy--the chances were she'd never see me again--all that's true, but it simply didn't count. She cared for me, and I for her, and we both knew it--that's all there was about it.
People live faster in war-time, I think--anyhow, that's the way it was.
”The men and horses came pouring around the house, and I let her hand loose--it was hard to do it, too--and then she was gone, and we rode on to the ford. We stopped when we got to the stream to let the horses have their turn at drinking, and as I sat loafing in the saddle, with my mind pretty full of what had just pa.s.sed, my eyes were all over. Every cavalry officer, and especially an aide-de-camp, gets to be a sort of hawk in active service--nothing can move within range that he doesn't see. So as I looked about me I took in among other things the house we'd just left, and suddenly I spied a handkerchief waving from behind one of the big white pillars. Of course you've got to be wary in an enemy's country, and these people were rabid Confederates, as I'd occasion to know. All the same it would have been bad judgment to neglect such a signal, and what's more, I'd have staked my life on that girl's honesty. If the handkerchief had been a cannon I'd have gone back. So back I went, taking a couple of men with me. As I jumped off my horse I saw her standing inside the front door, back in the shadow, and I ran up the steps to her.
”'Well?' said I.
”She looked up at me and laughed, showing a row of white teeth. That was the first time I ever saw her laugh. 'I knew you'd come back,' said she, as mischievous as a child, and her eyes danced.
”I didn't mean to be made a fool of, for I had my duty to think about, so I spoke rather shortly. 'Well, and now I'm here--what?'
”With that she drew an excited little gasp. 'I couldn't let you be killed,' she brought out in a sort of breathless whisper, so low I had to bend over close to hear her. 'You mustn't go on--in that direction--you'll be taken. The Union army's been defeated--at Chancellorsville. They're driven north of the Rappahannock--to Falmouth.
Our troops are in their old camps. There's an outpost across the ford--just over the hill.'
”It was the first I'd heard of the defeat at Chancellorsville, and it stunned me for a second. 'Are you telling me the truth?' I asked her pretty sharply.
”'You know I am,' she said, as haughty as you please all of a sudden, and drew herself up with her head in the air.