Say and Seal, Volume 2 — Chapter II Continued

Ladies were in the majority that night and the gentlemen were obliged to be constantly on the move.

In one of the minutes when Faith was alone, Mrs. Stoutenburgh came up.

"Faith," she whispered, "have you been doing anything to vex my friend?"

Faith started a little, with a sort of shadow of pain crossing her face.

"Who is your friend, Mrs. Stoutenburgh?"

"Hush, child!"

she answered--"_your_ friend, if you like it better."

And she added softly but seriously, "Don't vex him,--he doesn't deserve it."

Faith's lip was that touchingly sorrowful child's lip for an instant.

She was beyond speaking.

Then came up help, in the shape of Miss Essie;

with questions about the forfeits and about Mr. Linden.

All Mrs. Stoutenburgh's kindness made itself into a screen for Faith, on the instant,--neither eyes nor tongues were allowed to come near her.

"Mr. Linden!"

said Miss Essie as he just then came up, "will you help us give out forfeits?

Who do you think is best to do it?"

"Mr. Linden," said Mrs. Somers, "we are all very anxious to know whether all the reports about you are true."

Mr. Linden bowed to the anxiety, but gave it no further heed.

"Are they?"

she repeated.

"Do all the reports agree, Mrs. Somers?"

"I must confess they are at swords' points."

"Then they cannot all be true,--let them fight it out."

"But suppose some of the fighting should come upon you?"

"That is a supposition I have just refused to take up," said Mr. Linden, stepping towards the table and bringing a bunch of grapes to Faith's plate.

"Yes, but everybody hasn't the patience of Job," said Mrs. Somers.

"Julius, for instance."

"He has at least his own ways of obtaining information," said Mr. Linden, and Faith felt the slight change of voice.

"Miss Essie, what will you have?"

"Has the doctor any forfeits to pay?"

was the somewhat irrelevant answer.

"I should so like to see you two set against each other!

Dr. Harrison!

--have you any forfeits?"

"No," said the doctor;--"but as severe service to perform as if I had.

Linden, we shall want your help--it's too much for one man."

Faith edged away behind this growing knot of talkers, and presently was deeply engaged in conversation with Miss Cecilia Deacon, at a table in the corner, and alternating her attention between grapes and words.

Then Squire Stoutenburgh walked softly up and stood behind Faith's chair.

"My dear, will you have anything more?"

"No, sir, thank you."

"Then I am going to carry you off!"

said the Squire,--"if I wait a quarter of a second more I shall lose my chance.

Come!"

Faith was very willing to come, indeed; and they went back to the drawing-room, all the company pouring after them; and Faith feeling as if she had got under a kind of lee shore, on Mr. Stoutenburgh's arm.

It could not shelter her long, for the forfeits began.

The doctor and Mr. Linden, with Miss Essie and Mrs. Stoutenburgh for coadjutors, were constituted the awarding committee; and the forfeits were distributed to them indifferently.

There were many to be redeemed;

and at first there was a crowd of inferior interest, Messrs. Spider and Wasp, Mesdemoiselles White Lily and Cluster rose; who were easily disposed of and gallantly dismissed.

But there were others behind.

One of Faith's forfeits came up; it was held by Dr. Harrison.

"Please to stand forth, Miss Derrick, and hear your sentence," said the doctor, leading her to a central position in the floor; which Faith took quietly, but with what inward rebellion one or two people could somewhat guess.

"Have the goodness to state to the company what you consider to be the most admirable and praiseworthy of all the characters of flowers within your knowledge; and to describe the same, that we may judge of the justness of your opinion."

"Describe the character?"

said Faith in a low voice.

"Yes.

If you please."

She stood silent a moment, with downcast eyes, and did not raise them when she spoke.

Her colour was hardly heightened, and though her voice rose little above its former pitch, its sweet accents were perfectly audible everywhere.

The picture would have been enough for her forfeit.

"The prettiest character of a flower that I know, is that of a little species of Rhododendron.

It is one of the least handsome, to look at, of all its family; its beauty is in its living.

It grows on the high places of high mountains, where frost and barrenness give it no help nor chance; but there, where no other flower ever blossoms, it opens its flowers patiently and perseveringly; and its flowers are very sweet.

Nothing checks it nor discourages it.

As soon as the great cold lets it come, it comes; and as long as the least mildness lets it stay, it stays.

Amidst snow and tempest and desolation it opens its blossoms and spreads its sweetness, with nobody to see it nor to praise it;

where from the nature of the place it lives in, its work is all alone.

For no other flower will bear what it bears.

--Will that do?"

said Faith, looking up gravely at her questioner.

Very gently, very reverently even, he took her hand, put it upon his arm and led her to a seat, speaking as he went low words of gratified pardon asking.

"You must forgive me!"

he said.

"Forfeits must be forfeits, you know.

I couldn't resist the temptation."

"Now wasn't that pretty?"

whispered Miss Essie in the mean time in Mr. Linden's ear.

He had listened, leaning against the mantelpiece, and with shaded eyes looking down; and now to Miss Essie's question returned only a grave bend of the head.

"If you have been looking at the floor all this while, you have lost something," said the lady.

"Do you know your turn comes next?

Mr. Linden--ladies and gentlemen!

--is condemned to tell us what he holds the most precious thing in this world; and to justify himself in his opinion by an argument, a quotation, and an illustration!"

-- "Now will he find means to evade his sentence!"

said Mrs. Stoutenburgh laughing.

"He has confessed himself addicted to witchcraft in my hearing," said the doctor, who had remained standing by Faith's chair.

"The most precious thing in the world," said Mr. Linden, in a tone as carelessly graceful as his attitude, "is that which cannot be bought,--for if money could buy it, then were money equally valuable.

Take for illustration, the perfection of a friend."

"_I_ don't understand,"--said Miss Essie; "but perhaps I shall when I hear the rest."

He smiled a little and gave the quotation on that point in his own clear and perfect manner.

"'A sweet, attractive kind of grace;

A full assurance given by looks;

Continual comfort in a face;

The lineaments of gospel books,-- I trow that countenance cannot lye Whose thoughts are legible in the eye.'

" The quotation was received variously, but in general with vast admiration.

Miss Essie turned to Mrs. Stoutenburgh and remarked, half loud, "_That's_ easy to understand.

I was dull."

"What do you think of it?"

said the doctor softly, stooping towards Faith.

But if she heard she did not answer him.

She sat with downcast eyes that did not move.

She had been wondering whether that was a description of "Pet,"--or of somebody else.

"Faith," whispered Mrs. Stoutenburgh's kind mischievous voice in her ear,--"in whose face do you suppose he finds 'continual comfort'?"

But she was sorry the next instant, for the pained, startled look which flashed up at her.

Sorry and yet amused--the soft little kiss on Faith's cheek was smiling although apologetic.

"Mr. Linden," said the doctor, who held the bag of forfeits,--"it is your duty to punish Miss Essie with some infliction, such as you can devise."

"Miss Essie," said Mr. Linden, walking gravely up to her, "if there is any person in this room towards whom you entertain and practise malicious, mischievous, and underhand designs, you are hereby sentenced to indicate the person, declare the designs, and to 'shew cause.'

" "Why I never did in my life!"

said Miss Essie, with a mixture of surprise and amusement in her gracious black eyes.

"The court is obliged to refuse an unsupported negative," said Mr. Linden bowing.

"Well," said Miss Essie, with no diminishing of the lustre of her black orbs,--"I had a design against you, sir!"

"Of what sort?"

said Mr. Linden with intense gravity, while everybody else laughed in proportion.

"I had a design to enter your mind by private fraud, and steal away its secrets;--and the reason was, because the door was so terribly strong and had such an uncommon good lock!

and I couldn't get in any other way."

"I hope that is news to the rest of the company," said Mr. Linden laughing as he bowed his acknowledgments.

"It is none to me!

Miss Essie, may your shadow never be less!"

-- "Aint you ashamed!"

said Miss Essie reproachfully.

"Didn't such a confession deserve better?

Who's next, Mr. Harrison?"

Some unimportant names followed, with commonplace forfeits according;

then Faith's name came to Mr. Linden.

Then was there an opening of eyes and a pricking of ears of all the rest of the company.

Only Faith herself sat as still as a mouse, after one little quick glance over to where the person stood in whose hands she was.

He stood looking at her,--then walked with great deliberation across the room to her low seat, and taking both her hands lifted her up.

"You need not be frightened," he said softly, as keeping one hand in his clasp he led her back to where he had been standing; then placed her in a great downy easy chair in that corner of the fireplace, and drew up a footstool for her feet.

"Miss Faith," he said, "you are to sit there in absolute silence for the next fifteen minutes.

If anybody speaks to you, you are not to answer,--if you are longing to speak yourself you must wait.

It is also required that you look at nobody, and hear as little as possible."

With which fierce sentence, Mr. Linden took his stand by the chair to see it enforced.

"What a man you are!"

said Mrs. Stoutenburgh laughing.

"That's not fair play!"

said Mrs. Somers.

"She don't want to sit there--if you think she does, you're mistaken."

"She should have been more careful then," said Mr. Linden.

"Dr. Harrison, you have the floor."

Dr. Harrison did not appear to think that was much of a possession;--to judge by his face, which cast several very observant glances towards the chair, and by his manner which for a moment was slightly abstracted and destitute of the spirit of the game.

Miss Essie's eyes took the same direction, with a steady gaze which the picture justified.

Faith sat where she had been placed, in most absolute obedience to the orders she had received,--except possibly--not probably--the last one.

The lids drooped over her eyes, which moved rarely from the floor, and never raised themselves.

Her colour had risen indeed to a rich tint, where it stayed; but Mrs. Somers' declaration nevertheless was hardly borne out by a certain little bit-in smile which lurked there too, spite of everything.

Otherwise she sat like an impersonation of silence, happily screened, by not looking at anybody, from any annoyance of the eyes that were levelled at her and at the figure that held post by her side.

"Mrs. Stoutenburgh," said the doctor, "you have my aunt Ellen."

Mrs. Stoutenburgh however was lenient in that quarter, and told Mrs. Somers they would require nothing of her but the three last items of Pattaquasset news--which she, as pastor's wife, was bound to know.

And Mrs. Somers was not backward in declaring them; the first being the engagement of two people who hated each other, the second the separation of two people who loved each other; the third, that Mr. Linden shot himself--to make a sensation.

"Mr. Linden," said the doctor, "you come next--and you are mine.

What shall I do with you?"

"Why--anything," said Mr. Linden.

"Well--I am greatly at a loss what you are good for," said the doctor lightly,--"but on the whole I order you to preach a sermon to the company."

"Have you any choice as to the text?"

"I am not in the way of those things," said the doctor laughingly.

"Give us the lesson you think we want most."

The clear, grave look that met him--Dr. Harrison had seen it before.

The change was like the parting of a little bright vapour, revealing the steadfast blue beneath.

"Nay doctor, you must bid me do something else!

I dare not play at marbles with precious stones."

There was probably a mixture of things in the doctor's mind;--but the outward show in answer to this was in the highest degree seemly and becoming.

The expression of Dr. Harrison's face changed; with a look gentle and kind, even winning, he came up to Mr. Linden's side and took his hand.

"You are right!"

said he, "and I have got my sermon--which I deserve.

But now, Linden, _that_ is not your forfeit;--for that you must tell me--honestly--what you think of me."

There was always a general air of carelessness about Dr. Harrison, as to what he said himself or what others said in his presence.

Along with this carelessness, which whether seeming or real was almost invariable, there mingled now a friend's look and tone and something of a friend's apology making.

"But do you want me to tell everybody else?"

said Mr. Linden, smiling in his old way at the doctor.

"Do you like to blush before so many people?"

"That's your forfeit!"

said the doctor resuming also his old-fashioned light tone.

"You're to tell me--and you are _not_ to tell anybody else!"

"Well--if you will have it," said Mr. Linden looking at him,--"Honestly, I think you are very handsome!

--of course that is news to nobody but yourself."

"Mercy on you, man!"

said the doctor; "do you think that is news to _me?

_" "It is supposed to be--by courtesy," said Mr. Linden laughing.

"Well--give me all the grace courtesy will let you," said the doctor;

whether altogether lightly, or with some feeling, it would have been hard for a by-stander to tell.

"Is Miss Derrick's penance out?

She comes next--and Miss Essie has her."

"No,"--said Mr. Linden consulting his watch.

"I am sorry to interfere with your arrangements, doctor, but justice must have its course."

"Then there is a 'recess'"--said the doctor comically.

"Ladies and gentlemen--please amuse yourselves."

-- He had no intention of helping them, it seemed, for he stood fast in his place and talked to Mr. Linden in a different tone till the minutes were run out.

No thing could be more motionless than the occupant of the chair.

"Miss Faith," Mr. Linden said then, "it is a little hard to pass from one inquisitor to another--but I must hand you over to Miss Essie."

Faith's glance at him expressed no gratification.

Meanwhile the doctor had gone for Miss Essie and brought her up to the fireplace.

"Miss Derrick," said the black-eyed lady, "I wish you to tell--as the penalty of your forfeit--why, when you thought the Rhododendron the most perfect flower, you did not take it for your name?"

If anybody had known the pain this question gave Faith--the leap of dismay that her heart made!

Nobody knew it; her head drooped, and the colour rose again to be sure; but one hand sheltered the exposed cheek and the other was turned to the fire.

She could not refuse to answer, and with the doctor's weapons she would not; but here, as once before, Faith's straightforwardness saved her.

"Why didn't you call yourself Rhodora?"

repeated Miss Essie.

And Faith answered,-- "Because another name was suggested to me."

The question could not decently be pushed any further; and both Miss Essie and the doctor looked as if they had failed.

Faith's own tumult and sinking of heart prevented her knowing how thoroughly this was true.

"And you two people," said Mr. Linden, "come and ask Miss Derrick why she chose to appropriate a character that she thought fell short of perfection!

--what is the use of telling anybody anything, after that?"

"I am only one people," said Miss Essie.

"I am another," said the doctor; "and I confess myself curious.

Besides, a single point of imperfection might be supposed, without injury to mortal and human nature."

"Julius," said Miss Harrison, "will you have the goodness to do so impolite a thing as to look at your watch?

Aunt Ellen will expect us to set a proper example.

Dear Faith, are you bound to sit in that big chair all night?"

Then there was a general stir and break-up of the party.

One bit of conversation Faith was fated to hear as she slowly made her way out of the dressing-room door, among comers and goers: the first speaker was a young De Staff.

"Since that shooting affair there's been nothing but reports about you, Linden."

"Reports seldom kill," said Mr. Linden.

"Don't trust to that!"

said another laughing moustache,--"keep 'em this side the water.

By the way--is there any likeness of that fair foreigner going?

How do you fancy _she_ would like reports?"

"When you find out I wish you would let me know," said Mr. Linden with a little accent of impatience, as he came forward and took Faith in charge.