Volume I Part 37 (1/2)
”Yes, very much.”
”Father and mother will take us delightful walks in the Tuileries ? the gardens, you know ? and the Champs Elysees, and Versailles, and the Boulevards, and ever so many places, and it will be a great deal pleasanter now you are here. Do you know French?”
”No.”
”Then you'll have to learn. I'll help you if you will let me.
It is very easy. Did you get my last letter?”
”I don't know,” said Fleda; ”the last one I had came with one of aunt Lucy's telling me about Mrs. Carleton ? I got it just before ?”
Alas! before what? Fleda suddenly remembered, and was stopped short. From all the strange scenes and interests which lately had whirled her along, her spirit leapt back with strong yearning recollection to her old home and her old ties; and such a rain of tears witnessed the dearness of what she had lost, and the tenderness of the memory that had let them slip for a moment, that Hugh was as much distressed as startled.
With great tenderness and touching delicacy, he tried to soothe her, and at the same time, though guessing, to find out what was the matter, lest he should make a mistake.
”Just before what?” said he, laying his hand caressingly on his little cousin's shoulder. ”Don't grieve so, dear Fleda!”
”It was only just before grandpa died,” said Fleda.
Hugh had known of that before, though like her he had forgotten it for a moment. A little while his feeling was too strong to permit any further attempt at condolence; but as he saw Fleda grow quiet, he took courage to speak again.
”Was he a good man?” he asked softly.
”O yes!”
”Then,” said Hugh, ”you know he is happy now, Fleda. If he loved Jesus Christ, he is gone to be with him. That ought to make you glad as well as sorry.”
Fleda looked up, though tears were streaming yet, to give that full happy answer of the eye that no words could do. This was consolation, and sympathy. The two children had a perfect understanding of each other from that time forward, ? a fellows.h.i.+p that never knew a break nor a weakening.
Mrs. Rossitur found on her return that Hugh had obeyed her charge to the letter. He had made Fleda feel at home. They were sitting close together, Hugh's hand affectionately clasping hers, and he was holding forth on some subject with a gracious politeness that many of his elders might have copied, while Fleda listened and a.s.sented with entire satisfaction.
The rest of the morning she pa.s.sed in her aunt's arms, drinking draughts of pleasure from those dear bright eyes, taking in the balm of gentlest words of love and soft kisses, every one of which was felt at the bottom of Fleda's heart, and the pleasure of talking over her young sorrows with one who could feel them all, and answer with tears as well as words of sympathy. And Hugh stood by the while, looking at his little orphan cousin as if she might have dropped from the clouds into his mother's lap, a rare jewel or delicate flower, but much more delicate and precious than they or any other possible gift.
Hugh and Fleda dined alone: for, as he informed her, his father never would have children at the dinner-table when he had company, and Mr. and Mrs. Carleton, and other people were to be there to-day. Fleda made no remark on the subject, by word or look, but she thought none the less. She thought it was a very mean fas.h.i.+on. _She_ not come to the table when strangers were there! And who would enjoy them more? When Mr.
Rossitur and Mr. Carleton had dined with her grandfather, had she not taken as much pleasure in their society, and in the whole thing, as any other one of the party? And at Carleton had she not several times dined with a tableful, and been unspeakably amused to watch the different manners and characteristics of people who were strange to her? However, Mr. Rossitur had other notions. So she and Hugh had their dinner in aunt Lucy's dressing-room by themselves; and a very nice dinner it was, Fleda thought, and Rosaline, Mrs.
Rossitur's French maid, was well affected and took admirable care of them. Indeed, before the close of the day, Rosaline privately informed her mistress, ”qu'elle serait entetee surement de cet enfant dans trois jours;” and ”que son regard vraiment lui serrait le coeur.” And Hugh was excellent company, failing all other, and did the honours of the table with the utmost thoughtfulness, and amused Fleda the whole time with accounts of Paris, and what they would do, and what she should see; and how his sister Marion was at school at a convent, and what kind of a place a convent was; and how he himself always stayed at home and learned of his mother and his father; ”or by himself,” he said, ”just as it happened,”
and he hoped they would keep Fleda at home too. So Fleda hoped exceedingly, but this stern rule about the dining had made her feel a little shy of her uncle; she thought perhaps he was not kind and indulgent to children, like her aunt Lucy, and if he said she must go to a convent, she would not dare to ask him to let her stay. The next time she saw him, however, she was obliged to change her opinion again, in part; for he was very kind and indulgent, both to her and Hugh, and, more than that, he was very amusing. He showed her pictures, and told her new and interesting things, and finding that she listened eagerly, he seemed pleased to prolong her pleasure, even at the expense of a good deal of his own time.
Mr. Rossitur was a man of cultivated mind and very refined and fastidious taste. He lived for the pleasures of art and literature, and the society where these are valued. For this, and not without some secret love of display, he lived in Paris; not extravagant in his pleasures, nor silly in his ostentation, but leading, like a gentleman, as worthy and rational a life as a man can lead who lives only to himself, with no further thought than to enjoy the pa.s.sing hours. Mr.
Rossitur enjoyed them elegantly, and, for a man of the world, moderately; bestowing, however, few of those precious hours upon his children. It was his maxim, that they should be kept out of the way whenever their presence might by any chance interfere with the amus.e.m.e.nts of their elders; and this maxim, a good one certainly in some hands, was, in his reading of it, a very broad one. Still, when he did take time to give his family, he was a delightful companion to those of them who could understand him. If they showed no taste for sensible pleasure, he had no patience with them, nor desire of their company. Report had done him no wrong in giving him a stern temper; but this almost never came out in actual exercise; Fleda knew it only from in occasional hint now and then, and by her childish intuitive reading of the lines it had drawn round the mouth and brow. It had no disagreeable bearing on his everyday life and manner; and the quiet fact probably served but to heighten the love and reverence in which his family held him very high.
Mr. Rossitur did once moot the question, whether Fleda should not join Marion at her convent. But his wife looked very grave, and said that she was too tender and delicate a little thing to be trusted to the hands of strangers. Hugh pleaded, and argued that she might share all his lessons; and Fleda's own face pleaded more powerfully. There was something appealing in its extreme delicacy and purity which seemed to call for shelter and protection from every rough breath of the world; and Mr. Rossitur was easily persuaded to let her remain in the stronghold of home. Hugh had never quitted it. Neither father nor mother ever thought of such a thing. He was the cherished idol of the whole family. Always a delicate child, always blameless in life and behaviour, his loveliness of mind and person, his affectionateness, the winning sweetness that was about him like a halo, and the slight tenure by which they seemed to hold him, had wrought to bind the hearts of father and mother to this child, as it were, with the very life- strings of both. Not his mother was more gentle with Hugh than his much sterner father. And now little Fleda, sharing somewhat of Hugh's peculiar claims upon their tenderness, and adding another of her own, was admitted, not to the same place in their hearts ? that could not be ? but, to their honour be it spoken, to the same place in all outward show of thought and feeling. Hugh had nothing that Fleda did not have, even to the time, care, and caresses of his parents. And not Hugh rendered them a more faithful return of devoted affection.
Once made easy on the question of school, which was never seriously stirred again, Fleda's life became very happy. It was easy to make her happy; affection and sympathy would have done it almost anywhere; but in Paris she had much more; and after time had softened the sorrow she brought with her, no bird ever found existence less of a burden, nor sang more light-heartedly along its life. In her aunt she had all but the name of a mother; in her uncle with kindness and affection, she had amus.e.m.e.nt, interest, and improvement; in Hugh, everything ? love, confidence, sympathy, society, help; their tastes, opinions, pursuits, went hand in hand. The two children were always together. Fleda's spirits were brighter than Hugh's, and her intellectual tastes stronger and more universal. That might be as much from difference of physical as of mental const.i.tution. Hugh's temperament led him somewhat to melancholy, and to those studies and pleasures which best side with subdued feeling and delicate nerves. Fleda's nervous system was of the finest too, but, in short, she was as like a bird as possible. Perfect health, which yet a slight thing was enough to shake to the foundation; joyous spirits, which a look could quell; happy energies, which a harsh hand might easily crush for ever. Well for little Fleda that so tender a plant was permitted to unfold in so nicely tempered an atmosphere. A cold wind would soon have killed it. Besides all this, there were charming studies to be gone through every day with Hugh ? some for aunt Lucy to hear, some for masters and mistresses. There were amusing walks in the Boulevards, and delicious pleasure-taking in the gardens of Paris, and a new world of people, and manners, and things, and histories, for the little American. And despite her early rustic experience, Fleda had from nature an indefeasible taste for the elegances of life; it suited her well, to see all about her, in dress, in furniture, in various appliances, as commodious and tasteful as wealth and refinement could contrive it; and she very soon knew what was right in each kind. There were, now and then, most gleeful excursions in the environs of Paris, when she and Hugh found in earth and air a world of delights more than they could tell anybody but each other. And at home, what peaceful times they two had ? what endless conversations, discussions, schemes, air journeys of memory and fancy, backward and forward! ? what sociable dinners alone, and delightful evenings with Mr. and Mrs. Rossitur in the saloon, when n.o.body, or only a very few people, were there, how pleasantly in those evenings the foundations were laid of a strong and enduring love for the works of art, painted, sculptured, or engraven; what a mult.i.tude of curious and excellent bits of knowledge Fleda's ears picked up from the talk of different people. They were capital ears; what they caught they never let fall. In the course of the year her gleanings amounted to more than many another person's harvest.
CHAPTER XIV.
”Heav'n bless thee; Thou hast the sweetest face I ever look'd on.”
SHAKESPEARE.