Part 7 (2/2)

Mrs. Caldwell drew herself up, and looked at Mrs. Small, but said nothing; yet somehow Beth knew that she too was unhappy because of Sophia Keene. Beth was not on familiar terms with her mother, and would not have dared to embrace her spontaneously, or make any other demonstration of affection; but she was loyally devoted to her all the same, and would gladly have stabbed Sophia Keene, and have done battle with the whole of the rest of the family on her mother's behalf had occasion offered.

She was curled up among the fuchsias on the window-seat of the sitting-room one day, un.o.bserved by her parents, who entered the room together after she had settled herself there, and began to discuss the Keenes.

”You did not tell me, Henry, you spent all your time with them before we came,” Mrs. Caldwell said reproachfully.

”Why should I?” he answered, with a jaunty affectation of ease.

”It is not why you should,” his wife said with studied gentleness, ”but why you should not. It seems so strange, making a mystery of it.”

”I described old Keene to you--the old buffalo!” he replied; ”and I'll describe the girls now if you like. Mary is a gawk, Sophia is as yellow as a duck's foot, and Lenore is half-witted.”

The Keenes were ignorant, idle, good-tempered young women, and kind to the children, whom they often took to bathe with them. They were seldom able to go into the sea itself, for it was a wild, tempestuous coast; but there were lovely clear pools on the rocky sh.o.r.e, natural stone baths left full of water when the tide went out, sheltered from the wind by tall, dark, precipitous cliffs, and warmed by the sun; and there they used to dabble by the hour together. Anne went with them, and it was a pretty sight, the four young women in white chemises that clung to them when wet, and the three lovely children--little white nudities with bright brown hair--scampering over the rocks, splas.h.i.+ng each other in the pools, or lying about on warm sunny slabs, resting and chattering. One day Beth found some queer things in a pool, and Sophia told her they were barnacles.

”They stick to the bottom of a s.h.i.+p,” she said, ”and grow heavier and heavier till at last the s.h.i.+p can make no more way, and comes to a standstill in a s.h.i.+ning sea, where the water is as smooth as a mirror; you would think it was a mirror, in fact, if it did not heave gently up and down like your breast when you breathe; and every time it heaves it flushes some colour, blue, or green, or pink, or purple. And the barnacles swell and swell at the bottom of the s.h.i.+p, till at last they burst in two with a loud report; and then the sailors rush to the side of the s.h.i.+p and look over, and there they see a flock of beautiful big white geese coming up out of the water; and sometimes they shoot the geese, but if they do a great storm comes on and engulfs the s.h.i.+p, and they are all drowned; but sometimes they stand stockstill, amazed, and then the birds rise up out of the air on their great white wings, up, up, drifting along, together, till they look like the clouds over there. Then a gentle breeze springs up, and the s.h.i.+p sails away safely into port.”

”And where do the geese go?” Beth demanded, with breathless interest.

”They make for the sh.o.r.e too, and in the dead of winter, on stormy nights, they fly over the land, uttering strange cries, and if you wake and hear them, it means somebody is going to die.”

Beth's eyes were staring far out beyond the great green Atlantic rollers that came bursting in round the sheltering headland, white-crested with foam, flying up the beach with a crash, and scattering showers of spray that sparkled in the suns.h.i.+ne. She could see the s.h.i.+ps and the barnacles, and the silent sea, heaving great sighs and flus.h.i.+ng with fine colour in the act; and the geese, and the sailors peering over the side and shooting at them and sinking immediately in a storm, but also sailing into a safe haven triumphantly, where the sun shone on white houses, although, at the same time, it was dark night, and overhead there were strange cries that made her cower--”Beth!” cried Sophia, ”what's the matter with you, child?”

Beth returned with a start, and stared at her--”I know who it will be,” she said.

”Who what'll be, Miss Beth?” Anne asked in awe.

”Who'll die,” said Beth.

”You mustn't say, Beth; you'll bring bad luck if you do,” Miss Keene interposed hastily.

”I'm not going to say,” Beth answered dreamily; ”but I know.”

”You shouldn't have told the child that story, miss,” Anne said.

”Shure, ye know what she is--she sees.” Anne nodded her head several times significantly.

”I forgot,” said Sophia.

”She'll forget too,” said Mary philosophically. ”I say, Beth,” she went on, raising herself on her elbow--she was lying p.r.o.ne on a slab of rock in the sun--”what does your mother think of us?”

Beth roused herself. ”I don't know,” she answered earnestly; ”she never says. But I know what papa thinks of you. He says Mary's a gawk, Sophia is as yellow as a duck's foot, and Lenore is only half-witted.”

The effect of this announcement astonished Beth. The Misses Keene, instead of being interested, all looked at her as if they did not like her, and Anne burst out laughing. When they got in, Anne told Mrs.

Caldwell, who flushed suddenly, and covered her mouth with her handkerchief.

”Yes, mamma,” Mildred exclaimed with importance, ”Beth did say so. And Mary tossed her head, and Sophia sneered.”

”What is sneered?” Beth demanded importunately. ”What is sneered?”

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