While Mrs. Carey was talking with Mr. Lord, Nancy skimmed across the barn floor intent on some suddenly remembered duty, went out into the garden, and met face to face a strange young man standing1 by the rose trellis and looking in at the dance through the open door.
He had on a conventional black dinner-coat, something never seen in Beulah, and wore a soft travelling cap. At first Nancy thought he was a friend of the visiting fiddler, but a closer look at his merry dark eyes gave her the feeling that she had seen him before, or somebody very like him. He did not wait for her to speak, but taking off his cap, put out his hand and said: "By your resemblance to a photograph in my possession I think you are the girl who planted the crimson3 rambler."
"Are you 'my son Tom'?" asked Nancy, open astonishment4 in her tone. "I mean my Mr. Hamilton's son Tom?"
"I am _my_ Mr. Hamilton's son Tom; or shall we say _our_ Mr. Hamilton's? Do two 'mys' make one 'our'?"
"Upon my word, wonders will never cease!" exclaimed Nancy. "The Admiral said you were in Boston, but he never told us you would visit Beulah so soon!"
"No, I wanted it to be a secret. I wanted to appear when the ball was at its height; the ghost of the old regime confronting the new, so to speak."
"Beulah will soon be a summer resort; everybody seems to be coming here."
"It's partly your fault, isn't it?"
"Why, pray?"
"'The Water Babies' is one of my favorite books, and I know all about Mother Carey's chickens. They go out over the seas and show good birds the way home."
"Are _you_ a good bird?" asked Nancy saucily5.
"I'm _home_, at all events!" said Tom with an emphasis that made Nancy shiver lest the young man had come to Beulah with a view of taking up his residence in the paternal6 mansion7.
The two young people sat down on the piazza8 steps while the music of The Sultan's Polka floated out of the barn door. Old Mrs. Jenks was dancing with Peter, her eighty-year-old steps as fleet as his, her white side-curls bobbing to the tune9. Her withered10 hands clasped his dimpled ones and the two seemed to be of the same age, for in the atmosphere of laughter and goodwill11 there would have been no place for the old in heart, and certainly Mrs. Jenks was as young as any one at the party.
"I can't help dreading12 you, nice and amiable13 as you look," said Nancy candidly14 to Tom Hamilton; "I am so afraid you'll fall in love with the Yellow House and want it back again. Are you engaged to be married to a little-footed China doll, or anything like that?" she asked with a teasing, upward look and a disarming15 smile that robbed the question of any rudeness.
"No, not engaged to anything or anybody, but I've a notion I shall be, soon, if all goes well! I'm getting along in years now!"
"I might have known it!" sighed Nancy. "It was a prophetic instinct, my calling you the Yellow Peril17."
"It isn't a bit nice of you to dislike me before you know me; I didn't do that way with you!"
"What do you mean?"
"Why, in the first letter you ever wrote father you sent your love to any of his children that should happen to be of the right size. I chanced to be _just_ the right size, so I accepted it, gratefully; I've got it here with me to-night; no, I left it in my other coat," he said merrily, making a fictitious19 search through his pockets.
Nancy laughed at his nonsense; she could not help it.
"Will you promise to get over your foolish and wicked prejudices if I on my part promise never to take the Yellow House away from you unless you wish?" continued Tom.
"Willingly," exclaimed Nancy joyously20. "That's the safest promise I could make, for I would never give up living in it unless I had to. First it was father's choice, then it was mother's, now all of us seem to have built ourselves into it, as it were. I am almost afraid to care so much about anything, and I shall be so relieved if you do not turn out to be really a Yellow Peril after all!"
"You are much more of a Yellow Peril yourself!" said Tom, "with that dress and that ribbon in your hair! Will you dance the next dance with me, please?"
"It's The Tempest; do you know it?"
"No, but I'm not so old but I may learn. I'll form myself on that wonderful person who makes jokes about the Admiral and plays the fiddle2."
"That's Ossian Popham, principal prop16 of the House of Carey!"
"Lucky dog! Have you got all the props21 you need?"
Nancy's hand was not old or strong or experienced enough to keep this strange young man in order, and just as she was meditating22 some blighting23 retort he went on:--
"Who is that altogether adorable, that unspeakably beautiful lady in black?--the one with the pearl comb that looks like a crown?"
"That's mother," said Nancy, glowing.
"I thought so. At least I didn't know any other way to account for her."
"Why does she have to be accounted for?" asked Nancy, a little bewildered.
"For the same reason that you do," said the audacious youth. "You explain your mother and your mother explains you, a little, at any rate. Where is the celebrated24 crimson rambler, please?"
"You are sitting on it," Nancy answered tranquilly25.
Tom sprang away from the trellis, on which he had been half reclining. "Bless my soul!" he exclaimed. "Why didn't you tell me? I have a great affection for that rambler; it was your planting it that first made me--think favorably of you. Has it any roses on it? I can't see in this light."
"It is almost out of bloom; there may be a few at the top somewhere; I'll look out my window to-morrow morning and see."
"At about what hour?"
"How should I know?" laughed Nancy.
"Oh! you're not to be depended on!" said Tom rebukingly26. "Just give me your hand a moment; step on that lowest rung of the trellis, now one step higher, please; now stretch up your right hand and pick that little cluster, do you see it?--That's right; now down, be careful, there you are, thank you! A rose in the hand is worth two in the morning."
"Put it in your button hole," said Nancy. "It is the last; I gave your father one of the first a month ago."
"I shall put this in my pocket book and send it to my mother in a letter," Tom replied. ("And tell her it looks just like the girl who planted it," he thought; "sweet, fragrant27, spicy28, graceful29, vigorous, full of color.")
"Now come in and meet mother," said Nancy. "The polka is over, and soon they will be 'forming on' for The Tempest."
Tom Hamilton's entrance and introduction proved so interesting that it delayed the dance for a few moments. Then Osh Popham and the master fiddler tuned30 their violins and Mrs. Carey assisted Susie Bennett at the piano, so that there were four musicians to give fresh stimulus31 to the impatient feet.
Tom Hamilton hardly knew whether he would rather dance with Nancy or stand at the open door and watch her as he had been doing earlier in the evening. He could not really see her now, although he was her partner, his mind was so occupied with the intricate figures, but he could feel her, in every fibre of his body, the touch of her light hand was so charged with magnetism32.
Somebody swung the back doors of the barn wide open. The fields, lately mown, sloped gently up to a fringe of pines darkly green against the sky. The cool night air stirred the elms, and the brilliant moon appeared in the very centre of the doorway33. The beauty of the whole scene went to Tom Hamilton's head a little, but he kept his thoughts steadily34 on the changes as Osh Popham called them.
To watch Nancy Carey dance The Tempest was a sight to stir the blood. The two head couples joined hands and came down the length of the barn four abreast35; back they went in a whirl; then they balanced to the next couple, then came four hands round and ladies' chain, and presently they came down again flying, with another four behind them. The first four were Nancy and Tom, Ralph Thurston and Kathleen, the last two among the best dancers in Beulah; but while Kitty was slim and straight and graceful as a young fawn36, Nancy swept down the middle of the barn floor like a flower borne by the breeze. She was Youth, Hope, Joy incarnate37! She had washed the dishes that night, would wash them again in the morning, but what of that? What mattered it that the years just ahead (for aught she knew to the contrary) were full of self-denial and economy? Was she not seventeen? Anything was possible at seventeen! What if the world was to be a work-a-day world? There was music and laughter in it as well as work, and there was love in it, too, oceans of love, so why not trip and be merry and guide one's young partner safely through the difficult mazes38 of the dance and bring him out flushed and triumphant39, to receive mother's laughing compliments?
Everybody was dancing The Tempest in his or her own fashion, thought the Admiral, looking on. Mrs. Popham was grave, even gloomy from the waist up, but incredibly lively from the waist down, moving with the precision of machinery40, while her partner, a bricklayer from Beulah Centre, engaged the attention of the entire company by his wonderful steps. She was fully18 up to time too, you may be sure, as her rival, Mrs. Bill Harmon, was opposite her in the set. Lallie Joy, clad in one of Kathleen's dresses, her hair dressed by Julia, was a daily attendant at the Vacation School, but five weeks of steady instruction had not sufficed to make her sure of ladies' grand chain. Olive moved like a shy little wild thing, with a bending head and a grace all her own, while Gilbert had great ease and distinction.
There was a brief interval41 for ice cream, accompanied by marble cake, gold cake, silver cake, election cake, sponge cake, cup cake, citron cake, and White Mountain cake, and while it was being eaten, Susie Bennett played The Sliding Waltz, The Maiden's Prayer, and Listen to the Mocking Bird with variations; variations requiring almost supernatural celerity.
"I guess there ain't many that can touch Sutey at the piano!" said Osh Popham, who sat beside the Admiral. "Have you seen anybody in the cities that could play any faster'n she can? And Jo you ever ketch her landin' on a black note when she started for a white one? I guess not!"
"You are right!" replied the Admiral, "and now there seems to be a general demand for you. What are they requesting you to do,--fly?"
"That's it," said Osh. "Mis' Carey, will you play for me? Maria, you can go into the carriage house if you don't want to be disgraced."
"Come, my beloved, haste away,
Cut short the hours of thy delay.
Fly like a youthful hart or roe42
Over the hills where spices grow."
At length the strains of the favorite old tune faded on the ears of the delighted audience. Then they had The Portland Fancy and The Irish Washerwoman and The College Hornpipe, and at last the clock in the carriage house struck midnight and the guests departed in groups of twos and threes and fours, their cheerful voices sounding far down the village street.
Osh Popham stayed behind to cover the piano, put out the lanterns, close the doors and windows, and lock the barn, while Mrs. Carey and the Admiral strolled slowly along the greensward to the side door of the house.
"Good-night," Osh called happily as he passed them a few minutes later. "I guess Beulah never see a party such as ourn was, this evenin'! I guess if the truth was known, the State o' Maine never did, neither! Good-night, all! Mebbe if I hurry along I can ketch up with Maria!"
His quick steps brushing the grassy43 pathway could be heard for some minutes in the clear still air, and presently the sound of his mellow44 tenor45 came floating back:--
"Come, my beloved, haste away,
Cut short the hours of thy delay.
Fly like a youthful hart or roe
Over the hills where spices grow."
Julia had gone upstairs with the sleepy Peter-bird, who had been enjoying his first experience of late hours on the occasion of Nancy's coming out; the rest of the young folks were gathered in a group under the elms, chatting in couples,--Olive and Ralph Thurston, Kathleen and Cyril Lord, Nancy and Tom Hamilton. Then they parted, Tom Hamilton strolling to the country hotel with the young school teacher for companion, while Olive and Cyril walked across the fields to the House of Lords.
It was a night in a thousand. The air was warm, clear, and breathlessly still; so still that not a leaf stirred on the trees. The sky was cloudless, and the moon, brilliant and luminous46, shone as it seldom shines in a northern clime. The water was low in Beulah's shining river and it ran almost noiselessly under the bridge. While Kathleen and Julia were still unbraiding their hair, exclaiming at every twist of the hand as to the "loveliness" of the party, Nancy had kissed her mother and crept silently into bed. All night long the strains of The Tempest ran through her dreams. There was the touch of a strange hand on hers, an altogether new touch, warm and compelling. There was the gay trooping down the centre of the barn in fours,--some one by her side who had never been there before,--and a sensation entirely47 new and intoxicating48, that whenever she met the glance of her partner's merry dark eyes she found herself at the bottom of them.
Was she a child when she heard Osh Popham cry: "Take your partners for The Tempest!" and was she a woman when he called: "All promenade49 to seats!" She hardly knew. Beulah was a dream; the Yellow House was a dream, the dance was a dream, the partner was a dream. At one moment she was a child helping50 her father to plant the crimson rambler, at another she was a woman pulling a rose from the topmost branch and giving it to some one who steadied her hand on the trellis; some one who said "Thank you" and "Good-night" differently from the rest of the world.
Who was the young stranger? Was he the Knight51 of Beulah Castle, the Overlord of the Yellow House, was he the Yellow Peril, was he a good bird to whom Mother Carey's chicken had shown the way home? Still the dream went on in bewildering circles, and Nancy kept hearing mysterious phrases spoken with a new meaning,--"Will you dance with me?" "Doesn't the House of Carey need another prop?" "Won't you give me a rose?" and above all: "You sent your love to any one of the Hamilton children who should be of the right size; I was just the right size, and I took it!"
"Love couldn't be sent in a letter!" expostulated Nancy in the dream; and somebody, in the dream, always answered, "Don't be so sure! Very strange things happen when Mother Carey's messengers go out over the seas. Don't you remember how they spoke52 to Tom in 'The Water Babies'?--Among all the songs that came across the water one was more sweet and clear than all, for it was the song of a young girl's voice.... And what was the song that she sung?... Have patience, keep your eye single and your hands clean, and you will learn some day to sing it yourself, without needing any man to teach you!"
The End
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1
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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fiddle
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| n.小提琴；vi.拉提琴；不停拨弄，乱动 | |
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crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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saucily
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| adv.傲慢地，莽撞地 | |
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paternal
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| adj.父亲的，像父亲的，父系的，父方的 | |
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mansion
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| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
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piazza
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| n.广场；走廊 | |
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tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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withered
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| adj. 枯萎的，干瘪的，（人身体的部分器官）因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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goodwill
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| n.善意，亲善，信誉，声誉 | |
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dreading
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| v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的现在分词 ) | |
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amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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14
candidly
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| adv.坦率地，直率而诚恳地 | |
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15
disarming
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| adj.消除敌意的，使人消气的v.裁军( disarm的现在分词 )；使息怒 | |
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16
prop
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| vt.支撑；n.支柱，支撑物；支持者，靠山 | |
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17
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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19
fictitious
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| adj.虚构的，假设的；空头的 | |
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20
joyously
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| ad.快乐地, 高兴地 | |
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21
props
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| 小道具； 支柱( prop的名词复数 )； 支持者； 道具； （橄榄球中的）支柱前锋 | |
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22
meditating
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| a.沉思的，冥想的 | |
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23
blighting
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| 使凋萎( blight的现在分词 )； 使颓丧； 损害； 妨害 | |
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24
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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25
tranquilly
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| adv. 宁静地 | |
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rebukingly
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fragrant
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| adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的 | |
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28
spicy
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| adj.加香料的；辛辣的，有风味的 | |
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29
graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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30
tuned
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| adj.调谐的，已调谐的v.调音( tune的过去式和过去分词 )；调整；（给收音机、电视等）调谐；使协调 | |
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31
stimulus
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| n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物 | |
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32
magnetism
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| n.磁性，吸引力，磁学 | |
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33
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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34
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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35
abreast
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| adv.并排地；跟上(时代)的步伐，与…并进地 | |
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36
fawn
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| n.未满周岁的小鹿；v.巴结，奉承 | |
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incarnate
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| adj.化身的，人体化的，肉色的 | |
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38
mazes
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| 迷宫( maze的名词复数 )； 纷繁复杂的规则； 复杂难懂的细节； 迷宫图 | |
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39
triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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40
machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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41
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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42
roe
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| n.鱼卵；獐鹿 | |
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43
grassy
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| adj.盖满草的；长满草的 | |
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44
mellow
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| adj.柔和的；熟透的；v.变柔和；(使)成熟 | |
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45
tenor
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| n.男高音（歌手），次中音（乐器），要旨，大意 | |
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46
luminous
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| adj.发光的，发亮的；光明的；明白易懂的；有启发的 | |
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47
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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48
intoxicating
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| a. 醉人的,使人兴奋的 | |
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49
promenade
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| n./v.散步 | |
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50
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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51
knight
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| n.骑士，武士；爵士 | |
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52
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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