At the bedside there was a claw-footed table, which also had the look of an old friend; and on it a dainty porringer, filled with cuttings of fragrant2 sweetbriar. This was some womanly conceit3, I said to myself; and then I laughed, though the laugh set a pair of wolf's jaws4 at work on my shoulder. For you must know that I had lived the full half of King David's span of three-score and ten years, and more, and what womanly softness had fallen to my lot had been well got and paid for.
I closed my eyes the better to remember what had befallen, and when I opened them again was fain to wonder if the moment of back-reaching stood not for some longer time. In the deep bay of the window was a great chair of Indian wickerwork, and I could have sworn it had but now been empty. Yet when I looked again a woman sat in it.
Now of a truth I had seen this woman's face but twice; and once it wore a smile of teasing mockery and once was full of terror; but I thought I should live long and suffer much before the winsome5 challenging beauty of it would let me be as I had been before I had looked upon it.
She knew not that I was awake and slaking6 the thirst of my eyes upon the sweetness of her, and so I saw her then as few ever saw her, I think, with the womanly barriers of defense7 all down. 'Tis a hard test, and one that makes a blank at rest of many a face beautiful enough in action; but though this lady's face was to the full as changeful as any April sky, it was never less than triumphantly8 beautiful.
I had said her eyes were blue, but now they were deep wells reflecting the soft gray of the clouded sky beyond the window-panes. I had made sure that her lips lent themselves most readily to mocking smiles scornful of any wit less trenchant9 than her own; but now these mocking lips were pensive10, and with the rounded cheek and chin gave her the look of a sweet child wanting to be kissed. I had said her hair was bright in the sunlight, and so, indeed, it was; but lacking the sun it still held the dull luster11 of burnished12 copper13 in its masses, and her simple, care-free dressing14 of it at a time when les grandes dames15 were frizzing and powdering and adding art to art to mar16 the woman's crown of glory, gave her yet more the look of a child.
Lastly, I had called her small, and certainly her figure was girlish beside those grenadier dames of Maria Theresa's court to whom my old field-marshal had once presented me. But when she rose and went to stand in the window-bay I marked this; that not any duchess or margravine of them all had a more queenly bearing, or, with all their stays and furbelows, could match her supple17 grace and lissom18 figure.
What with the blood-lettings and the wound fever, coupled with the subtle witchery of her presence thus in my sick room, it is little to be wondered at that a curious madness came over me, or that I forgot for the moment the loyalty19 due to my dear lad. Could I have stood before her and, reading but half consent in the deep-welled eyes, have clipt her in my arms and laid my lips to hers, I would have run to pay the price, in earth or heaven or hell, I thought, deeming the fierce joy of it well worth any penalty.
At this I should have stirred, I suppose, for she came quickly and stood beside me.
"You have slept long and well, Captain Ireton," she said; and in all the thrilling joy of her nearer presence I found space to mark that her voice had in it that sweet quality of sympathy which is all womanly. "They say I am good only to fetch and carry—may I fetch you anything?"
I fear the madness of the moment must still have been upon me, for I said: "Since you are here yourself, dear lady, I need naught20 else."
At a flash I had my whipping in a low dipped curtsy and a mocking smile like that she had flung to Falconnet.
"Merci! mon Capitaine," she said; and for all my wincings under the sharp lash21 of her sarcasm22 I was moved to wonder how she had the French of it. And then she added: "Is it the custom for Her Apostolic Majesty's officers to come out of a death-swound only to pay pretty compliments?"
"'Twas no compliment," I denied; and, indeed, I meant it. Then I asked where I was, and to whom indebted, though I had long since guessed the answer to both questions.
In a trice the mocking mood was gone and she became my lady hostess, steeped to her finger-tips in gracious dignity.
"You are at Appleby Hundred, sir. 'Twas here they fetched you because there was no other house so near, and you were sorely hurt. Richard Jennifer and my black boy made a litter of the saddle-cloths, and with Sir Francis and Mr. Tybee to help—"
I think she must have seen that this thrust was sharper than that of the German long-sword, for she stopped in mid-sentence and looked away from me. And, surely, I thought it was the very irony23 of fate that I should thus be brought half dead to the house that was my father's, with my enemy and his second to share the burden of me.
"My father is away at Queensborough, so you must e'en trust yourself to my tender mercies, Captain Ireton. Are you strong enough to have your wound dressed?"
She asked, but waited for no answer of mine. Summoning a black boy to hold the basin of water, she fell to upon the wound-dressing with as little ado as if she had been a surgeon's apprentice25 on a battle-field, and I a bloodless ancient too old to thrill at the touch of a woman's hands.
"Dear heart! 'tis a monstrous26 ugly hurt," she declared, replacing the wrappings with deft27 fingers. "How came you to go about picking a quarrel with Sir Francis?"
"'Twas not of my seeking," I returned, and then I could have cursed my foolish tongue.
"Is that generous, Captain Ireton? We hear something of the talk of the town, and that says—"
"That says I struck him without sufficient cause. I am content to let it stand so."
"Nay28, but you should not be content. Is there not strife29 enough in this unhappy land without these causeless bickerings?"
Here was my lady turned preacher all in a breath and I with no words to answer her. But I could not let it go thus.
"I knew Sir Francis Falconnet in England," said I, hoping by this to turn her safe aside.
"Ah; then there was a cause. Tell it me."
"Nay, that I may not."
Though she was hurting me sorely in the wound-dressing, and knew it, she laughed.
"'Tis most ungallant to deny a lady, sir. But I shall know without the telling; 'twas about a woman. Tell me, Captain Ireton, is she fair?"
Seeing that her mood had changed again, I tried to give her quip for jest; but what with the pain of the sword-thrust and the sweet agony of her touches I could only set my teeth against a groan30. She went on drawing the bandagings, little heedful how she racked me, I thought; and yet when all was done she stood beside me all of a tremble, as any tender-hearted woman might.
"There," she said; "'tis over for a time, and I make no doubt you are glad enough. Now you have nothing to do save to lie quiet till it heals."
"And how long will that be, think you?"
"We shall see; a long time, I hope. You shall be punished properly for your hot temper, I promise you, Captain Ireton."
With that she left me and went to stand in the window-bay; and from lying mouse-still and watching her over-steadily I fell asleep again. When I awoke the day was in its gloaming and she was gone.
After this I saw her no more for six full circlings of the clock-hands, and grew fair famished31 for a sight of her sweet face. But to atone32, she, or some messenger of Richard Jennifer's, brought me my faithful Darius, and he it was who fetched me my food and drink and dressed my wound. From him I gleaned33 that the master of Appleby Hundred had returned from Queensborough, and that there were officers in red coats continually going back and forth34, always with a hearty35 welcome from Gilbert Stair.
Now, though the master of my stolen heritage had little cause to love me, I thought he had still less to fear me; so it seemed passing strange that he came not once to my bedchamber to pass the time of day with his unbidden guest, or to ask how he fared. But in this, as in many other things, I reckoned without my enemy, though I might have known that Sir Francis would be oftenest among the red-coated officers coming and going.
But stranger than this, or than my lady's continued avoidance of me, was the lack of a visit from Richard Jennifer. Knowing well my dear lad's loyalty to the patriot36 cause, I could only conjecture37 that he had finally broken Margery's enforced truce38 to go and join Mr. Rutherford's militia39, which, as Darius told me, was rallying to attack a Tory stronghold at Ramsour's Mill.
With this surmise40 I was striving to content myself on that evening of the third day, when Mistress Margery burst in upon me, bright-eyed and with her cheeks aflame.
"Captain Ireton, I will know the true cause of this quarrel which, failing in yourself, you pass on to Richard Jennifer!" she cried. "Was it not enough that you should get yourself half slain41, without sending this headstrong boy to his death?"
Now in all my surmisings I had not thought of this, and truly if she had sought far and wide for a whip to scourge42 me with she could have found no thong43 to cut so deep.
"No, he is not dead," she confessed, relenting a little. "But he has the baronet's bullet through his sword-arm for the sake of your over-seas disagreement with Sir Francis."
I could not tell her that though my quarrel with this villain46 was but the avenging47 of poor Dick Coverdale's wrongs, Richard Jennifer's was for the baronet's affront48 to her. So I bore the blame in silence, glad enough to be assured that my dear lad was only wounded.
"Why don't you speak, sir?" she snapped, flying out at me in a passion for my lack of words.
"What should I say? I have not forgot that once you called me ungenerous."
"You should defend yourself, if you can. And you should ask my pardon for calling my father's guest hard names."
"The last I will do right heartily49. 'Twas but the simple truth, but it was ill-spoken in your presence, Mistress Stair."
At this she laughed merrily; and in all my world-wanderings I had never heard a sound so gladsome as this sweet laugh of hers when she would be on the forgiving hand.
"Surely any one would know you are a soldier, Captain Ireton. No other could make an apology and renew the offense51 so innocently in the same breath." Then her mood changed again in the dropping of an eyelid52, and she sighed and said: "Poor Dick!"
As ever when she was with me, my eyes were devouring53 her; and at the sigh and the trembling of the sweet lips in sympathy I found that curious love-madness coming upon me again. Then I saw that I must straightway dig some chasm54 impassable between this woman and me, as I should hope to be loyal to my friend. So I said: "He loves you well, Mistress Margery."
She glanced up quickly with a smile which might have been mocking or loving; I could not tell which it was.
"Did he make you his deputy to tell me so, Captain Ireton?"
Now I might have known that she was only luring55 me on to some pitfall56 of mockery, but I did not, and must needs burst out in some clumsy disclaimer meant to shield my dear lad. And in the midst of it she laughed again.
"Oh, you do amuse me mightily57, mon Capitaine," she cried. "I do protest I shall come to see you oftener. Tis as good as any play!"
"Saw you ever a play in this backwoods wilderness58?" I asked, glad of any excuse to change the talk and keep her by me.
"No, indeed. But you are not to think that no one has seen the great world save only yourself, Captain Ireton. What would you say if I should tell you that I, too, have seen your London, and even your Paris?"
Here I must blunder again and say that I had been wondering how else she came by the Parisian French; but at this her jesting mood vanished suddenly and she spoke50 softly.
"I had it of my mother, who came of the Huguenots. She spoke it always to me. But my father speaks it not, and now I am losing it for want of practice."
How is it that love transforms the once contemptible59 into a thing most highly to be prized? My eight years of campaigning on the Continent had given me the French speech, or so much of it as the clumsy tongue of me could master, and I had always held it in hearty English scorn. Yet now I was eager enough to speak it with her, and to take as my very own the little cry of joy wherewith she welcomed my hesitant mouthing of it.
From that we fell to talking in her mother's tongue of the hardships of those same Huguenot émigrés; and when I looked not at her I could speak in terms dispassionate and cool of this or aught else; and when I looked upon her my heart beat faster and my blood leaped quickly, and I knew not always what it was I said.
After a time—'twas when Darius fetched me my supper and the candles—she went away; and so ended a day which saw the beginning of a struggle fiercer than any the turbaned Turk had ever given me. For when I had eaten, and was alone with time to think, I knew well that I loved this woman and should always love her; this in spite of honor, or loyalty to Richard Jennifer, or any other thing in heaven or earth.
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1
linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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fragrant
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| adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的 | |
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conceit
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| n.自负，自高自大 | |
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jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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winsome
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| n.迷人的，漂亮的 | |
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slaking
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| n.熟化v.满足( slake的现在分词 ) | |
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7
defense
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| n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩 | |
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8
triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
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trenchant
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| adj.尖刻的，清晰的 | |
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pensive
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| a.沉思的,哀思的,忧沉的 | |
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luster
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| n.光辉；光泽，光亮；荣誉 | |
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12
burnished
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| adj.抛光的，光亮的v.擦亮（金属等），磨光( burnish的过去式和过去分词 )；被擦亮，磨光 | |
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13
copper
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| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
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14
dressing
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| n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料 | |
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15
dames
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| n.（在英国）夫人（一种封号），夫人（爵士妻子的称号）( dame的名词复数 )；女人 | |
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16
mar
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| vt.破坏，毁坏，弄糟 | |
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17
supple
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| adj.柔软的，易弯的，逢迎的，顺从的，灵活的；vt.使柔软，使柔顺，使顺从；vi.变柔软，变柔顺 | |
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18
lissom
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| adj.柔软的，轻快而优雅的 | |
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loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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20
naught
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| n.无，零 [=nought] | |
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21
lash
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| v.系牢；鞭打；猛烈抨击；n.鞭打；眼睫毛 | |
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22
sarcasm
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| n.讥讽，讽刺，嘲弄，反话 （adj.sarcastic） | |
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irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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24
queried
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| v.质疑，对…表示疑问( query的过去式和过去分词 )；询问 | |
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apprentice
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| n.学徒，徒弟 | |
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26
monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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deft
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| adj.灵巧的，熟练的（a deft hand 能手） | |
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nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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strife
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| n.争吵，冲突，倾轧，竞争 | |
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30
groan
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| vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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31
famished
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| adj.饥饿的 | |
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32
atone
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| v.赎罪，补偿 | |
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33
gleaned
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| v.一点点地收集（资料、事实）( glean的过去式和过去分词 )；（收割后）拾穗 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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patriot
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| n.爱国者，爱国主义者 | |
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conjecture
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| n./v.推测，猜测 | |
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38
truce
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| n.休战，(争执，烦恼等的)缓和；v.以停战结束 | |
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39
militia
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| n.民兵，民兵组织 | |
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40
surmise
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| v./n.猜想，推测 | |
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41
slain
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| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词) | |
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42
scourge
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| n.灾难，祸害；v.蹂躏 | |
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43
thong
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| n.皮带；皮鞭；v.装皮带 | |
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44
groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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45
incarnate
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| adj.化身的，人体化的，肉色的 | |
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46
villain
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| n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因 | |
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47
avenging
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| adj.报仇的，复仇的v.为…复仇，报…之仇( avenge的现在分词 )；为…报复 | |
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48
affront
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| n./v.侮辱，触怒 | |
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49
heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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50
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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51
offense
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| n.犯规，违法行为；冒犯，得罪 | |
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52
eyelid
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| n.眼睑，眼皮 | |
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53
devouring
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| 吞没( devour的现在分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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54
chasm
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| n.深坑，断层，裂口，大分岐，利害冲突 | |
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55
luring
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| 吸引，引诱（lure的现在分词形式） | |
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56
pitfall
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| n.隐患，易犯的错误；陷阱，圈套 | |
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57
mightily
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| ad.强烈地；非常地 | |
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58
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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59
contemptible
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| adj.可鄙的，可轻视的，卑劣的 | |
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