Part 32 (2/2)
”'It suits her peculiar style of beauty,' I heard him once say, when Margaret remonstrated with him on the extravagance of the idea. I was curled up on the window-seat, reading, and they did not think I was listening.
”'Raby is right,' observed Uncle Rolf; 'she will never make a quiet-looking English girl like our Maggie here--were you to dress her as a Puritan or a Quaker; ah, she will break hearts enough, I'll warrant, with those dark, witch eyes of hers; we must be careful of the child! If Bianca's beauty were like her daughter's, one can not wonder much at poor Edmund's choice.'
”Something in my uncle's speech aroused my childish petulance. I closed my book and came forward.
”'I don't want to break any hearts!' I cried, angrily; 'I only want Raby's--I am going to belong to Raby all my life, I will never leave him, never!' and I stamped my foot in a little fury.
”They all laughed, Uncle Rolf long and merrily, but Raby colored up as he smiled.
”'That's right, darling,' he said, in a low voice. 'Now go back to your book.' And I went at once obediently.
”When I bade him good-night that evening, and stood lingering by his chair on some pretext or other, he suddenly took hold of me and drew me toward him.
”'Little Crystal,' he said, 'you think you love Raby indeed; I am sure you do, and Heaven knows how sweet your childish affection is to me; but do you know--will you ever know how Raby loves you?' and putting his hands on my head he bade G.o.d bless my innocent face, and let me go.
”Oh, those delicious days of my childhood. But they are gone--they are gone! Long rambles on the sea-sh.o.r.e with Margaret, and in the corn-fields with Raby; now nutting in the copse or gathering brier roses in the lanes; setting out our strawberry feast under the great elm-tree on the lawn or picking up fir-cones in the Redmond avenue.
Spring flowers and autumn sunsets--bright halcyon days of my youth made glorious with love.
”For as yet no shadow of the future had fallen upon me, no taint of that inherited pa.s.sion had revealed itself; perhaps nothing had occurred to rouse the dormant temper lulled by the influences of this happy home. But the time came soon enough. Shalt I ever forget that day?
”It was during the Easter vacation--I must have been nearly thirteen then. Raby had been unwell; some low, feverish attack had seized him, and he was just ill enough to lie on the sofa all day and be petted and waited upon. I was perfectly happy from morning to night; I devoted myself to his amus.e.m.e.nt; reading to him, talking to him, or even sitting silently beside him while he slept.
”'Our Crystal is getting quite a woman,' he said once, when I turned his hot pillow and put the cooling drink beside him; and at that brief word of praise my face flushed with pleasure, and I felt amply rewarded.
”One day we had visitors, Hugh Redmond and two girls, distant relations of his, who were staying at the Hall with their mother.
”One of them, Isabel Vyvie, I had seen several times, and had taken a great dislike to her.
”She was a tall, striking-looking girl, much handsomer than her sister, Emily, and she must have been two or three years older than Raby. She always seemed to like his society; so, while the others talked to Uncle Rolf and Margaret, she sat on my low chair beside Raby's couch, and talked to him without seeming to notice any one else.
”Miss Vyvie was very handsome and a flirt, and Raby was only a young man.
”It would hardly have been natural if he had not seemed gratified by her interest in him, though I did not know until afterward that he valued it at its true cost.
”Still she was pleasant and her little airs amused him, and he entered into a long conversation with some enjoyment, and for once I was forgotten. I tried to join in once or twice, but Miss Vyvie treated me as a child, and scarcely deigned to notice me; but Raby did not seem to resent her indifference or want of courtesy.
”'He only cares for me when others are not by,' I thought, and my heart began to swell with jealous emotion. But just before she left something occurred that fanned the envious spark into a flame.
”Her white hand was resting on the little table that stood beside the couch. There was a diamond ring on one finger that flashed as she moved; presently she stretched it out to Raby, with a bewitching smile.
”'Oh, what lovely lilies of the valley,' she exclaimed, pointing to the flowers; 'they are the first I have seen this year. I adore lilies, they are perfectly exquisite. Do let me have them, Mr.
Ferrers. I know they grew in the garden, and I shall keep them as a memento of Sandycliffe and the dear Grange. Come, you must not let me break the tenth commandment and covet any longer,' and the fair, girlish hand rested near the flowers as she spoke.
”Raby looked embarra.s.sed and hesitated.
”I had gathered those lilies for him before the dew was off them. They grew in a little nook of the Redmond grounds; they were his favorite flowers, and I had walked all those miles to hunt for them.
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