Part 32 (1/2)

I looked whither she indicated. A little way down, the bed of the ravine widened considerably, and was no doubt filled with water in rainy weather. Now it was swampy--full of reeds and willow bushes. But on the opposite side of the stream, with a little ca.n.a.l from it going all around it, lay a great flat rectangular stone, not more than a foot above the level of the water, and upon a camp-stool in the centre of this stone sat a gentleman sketching. I had no doubt that Wynnie had recognised him at once. And I was annoyed, and indeed angry, to think that Mr. Percivale had followed us here. But while I regarded him, he looked up, rose very quietly, and, with his pencil in his hand, came towards us. With no nearer approach to familiarity than a bow, and no expression of either much pleasure or any surprise, he said--

”I have seen your party for some time, Mr. Walton--since you crossed the stream; but I would not break in upon your enjoyment with the surprise which my presence here must cause you.”

I suppose I answered with a bow of some sort; for I could not say with truth that I was glad to see him. He resumed, doubtless penetrating my suspicion--

”I have been here almost a week. I certainly had no expectation of the pleasure of seeing you.”

This he said lightly, though no doubt with the object of clearing himself. And I was, if not rea.s.sured, yet disarmed, by his statement; for I could not believe, from what I knew of him, that he would be guilty of such a white lie as many a gentleman would have thought justifiable on the occasion. Still, I suppose he found me a little stiff, for presently he said--

”If you will excuse me, I will return to my work.”

Then I felt as if I must say something, for I had shown him no courtesy during the interview.

”It must be a great pleasure to carry away such talismans with you--capable of bringing the place back to your mental vision at any moment.”

”To tell the truth,” he answered, ”I am a little ashamed of being found sketching here. Such bits of scenery are not of my favourite studies.

But it is a change.”

”It is very beautiful here,” I said, in a tone of contravention.

”It is very pretty,” he answered--”very lovely, if you will--not very beautiful, I think. I would keep that word for things of larger regard.

Beauty requires width, and here is none. I had almost said this place was fanciful--the work of imagination in her play-hours, not in her large serious moods. It affects me like the face of a woman only pretty, about which boys and guardsmen will rave--to me not very interesting, save for its single lines.”

”Why, then, do you sketch the place?”

”A very fair question,” he returned, with a smile. ”Just because it is soothing from the very absence of beauty. I would far rather, however, if I were only following my taste, take the barest bit of the moor above, with a streak of the cold sky over it. That gives room.”

”You would like to put a skylark in it, wouldn't you?”

”That I would if I knew how. I see you know what I mean. But the mere romantic I never had much taste for; though if you saw the kind of pictures I try to paint, you would not wonder that I take sketches of places like this, while in my heart of hearts I do not care much for them. They are so different, and just _therefore_ they are good for me.

I am not working now; I am only playing.”

”With a view to working better afterwards, I have no doubt,” I answered.

”You are right there, I hope,” was his quiet reply, as he turned and walked back to the island.

He had not made a step towards joining us. He had only taken his hat off to the ladies. He was gaining ground upon me rapidly.

”Have you quarrelled with our new friend, Harry?” said my wife, as I came up to her.

She was sitting on a stone. Turner and Wynnie were farther off towards the foot of the fall.

”Not in the least,” I answered, slightly outraged--I did not at first know why--by the question. ”He is only gone to his work, which is a duty belonging both to the first and second tables of the law.”

”I hope you have asked him to come home to our early dinner, then,” she rejoined.