Part 43 (2/2)
”Well, it's not over fair: but still, they are a sight better than they ever had before An old hoop is better than a deer's bone, as Ayacanora knows,--eh?”
”I don't know anything about it,” said she, as always nettled at the least allusion to her past wild life ”I aet it”
”Forget it?” said he, teasing her for want of so better to do ”Should not you like to sail with us, now, and see the Indians in the forests once again?”
”Sail with you?” and she looked up eagerly
”There! I knew it! She would not be four-and-twenty hours ashore, but she would be off into the woods again, bow in hand, like any runaway nymph, and we should never see her more”
”It is false, bad man!” and she burst into violent tears, and hid her face in Mrs Leigh's lap
”A?”
”I was only jesting, I'm sure,” said Amyas, like a repentant schoolboy ”Don't cry now, don't cry,in his pockets; ”see what I bought of a chapman in town to-day, for you, my maid, indeed, I did”
And out he pulled some smart kerchief or other, which had taken his sailor's fancy
”Look at it now, blue, and crireen, like any parrot!” and he held it out
She looked round sharply, snatched it out of his hand, and tore it to shreds
”I hate it, and I hate you!” and she sprang up and darted out of the rooh, ”will you kill that poor child? It matters little for an old heart like mine, which has but one or two chords left whole, how soon it be broken altogether; but a young heart is one of God's precious treasures, A; and woe to them who despise Christ's little ones!”
”Break your heart, mother?”
”Never mind my heart, dear son; yet how can you break itone whom I love, because she loves you?”
”Tut! play, mother, and maids' tempers But how can I break your heart? What have I done? Have I not given up going again to the West Indies for your sake? Have I not given up going to Virginia, and now again settled to go after all, just because you commanded? Was it not your will? Have I not obeyed you, mother, mother? I will stay at home now, if you will I would rather rust here on land, I voould, than grieve you--” and he threw hio to Virginia? No, dear boy, though every thought of a fresh parting seeo! It is your calling Yes; you were not sent into the world to ah of you, , foryou to the Lord But He h for the poor oldto know that her boy is what he is, and to forget all her anguish day by day, for joy that a man is born into the world But, Amyas, Amyas, are you so blind as not to see that Ayacanora--”
”Don't talk about her, poor child Talk about yourself”
”How long have I been worth talking about? No, Amyas, you must see it; and if you will not see it now, you will see it one day in soy; for she is not one to die tamely She loves you, Amyas, as a woman only can love”
”Loves ht her home; and I don't deny she h it was nomuch for me, mother, you measure every one else's tenderness by your own”
”Think that she owes you soratitude, but a deeper affection, which ratitude, as it may, too, become a horrible cause of ruin It rests with you, Amyas, which of the two it will be”
”You are in earnest?”
”Have I the heart or the time to jest?”
”No, no, of course not; but, ht it was not comely for women to fall in love with men?”
”Not comely, at least, to confess their love to men But she has never done that, Ah I have watched her for months”
”To be sure, she is as demure as any cat when I am in the way I only wonder how you found it out”
”Ah,” said she, ser snatches of olddead and turned to dust--pleasant ghosts, which still keep her h in her never -hyirl who loves, and sees her oedding-torch re-lighted in the eyes of every bride”
”You would not have me marry her?” asked blunt, practical Amyas
”God knohat I would have--I know not; I see neither your path nor s beyond are wrapped in mist; and ill be, I know not, save that whatever else is wrong, ht”
”I'd sail to- her, mother--her birth, mind me--”
”Ah, boy, boy! Are you God, to visit the sins of the parents upon the children?”
”Not that I don't mean that; but I mean this, that she is half a Spaniard,Philip's own, but it is Spanish still! I cannot bear the thought that my children should have in their veins one drop of that poison”
”A the parents' sins on the children?”
”Not a whit; it is common sense,--she must have the taint of their bloodthirsty huain I have told you, have I not? Can I forget the look of her eyes as she stood over that galleon's captain, with the sh! And she is not tamed yet, as you can see, and never will be:--not that I care, except for her own sake, poor thing!”
”Cruel boy! to impute as a bla, but the very madness of her love!”
”Of her love?”
”Of what else, blind buzzard? From the moment that you told me the story of that captain's death, I kneas in her heart--and thus it is that you requite her for having saved your life!”
”Umph! that is one word too much, mother If you don't want to send ratitude or duty As it is, I can hardly speak civilly to her (God forgive s to the creho h shuddered as he did so
”You feel it! You know you feel it, tender-hearted, forgiving angel as you are; and what do you think Iher hands, ”if I be wretch enough to give place to the devil for a ht to entertain and cherish hieance, if I brought up a crew of children who could boast of a pedigree of idolaters and tyrants, hunters of Indians, and torturers of wo Master Jack, 'Your illustrious grand-uncle the pope's legate, was the ena;' or Miss Grace, 'Your great-grandfather of sixteen quarterings, the Marquis of this, son of the Grand-equerry that, and husband of the Princess t'other, used to feed his bloodhounds, when beef was scarce, with Indians' babies!' Eh, et theo for awhileI live for, and that is, hunting down the Spaniards as I would adders or foxes, but you must ask me over and above to take one to my bosom?”
”Oh, my son, my son! I have not asked you to do that; I have only commanded you, in God's name, to be merciful, if you wish to obtain mercy Oh, if you will not pity this poor maiden, pity yourself; for God knows you stand in more need of it than she does!”
Amyas was silent for a minute or two; and then,-- ”If it were not for you, mother, would God that the Arland?”
”No! Curse thelish soil, such a welcoive the like a alleon on board of me to larboard, and another to starboard--and then to put a linstock in the ood company--I don't care how soon it comes, mother, if it were not for you”
”If I am in your way, A”
”Oh, mother, mother, do not talk in that way! I am half-mad, I think, already, and don't knohat I say Yes, I ah not at head There's a fire burningbut Spanish blood will put it out”
”Or the grace of God, my poor wilful child! Who comes to the door?--so quickly, too?”