Shirley

“A man’s morning star, indeed! and by ‘a man’ is meant your worshipful self, I suppose? Come, drink your new milk while it is warm.”

The young cripple rose and limped towards the fire; he had left his crutch near the mantelpiece.

“My poor lame darling!” murmured Shirley, in her softest voice, aiding him.

“Whether do you like me or Mr. Sam Wynne best, Shirley?” inquired the boy, as she settled him in an armchair.

“O Harry, Sam Wynne is my aversion; you are my pet.”

“Me or Mr. Malone?”

“You again, a thousand times.”

“Yet they are great whiskered fellows, six feet high each.”

“Whereas, as long as you live, Harry, you will never be anything more than a little pale lameter.”

“Yes, I know.”

“You need not be sorrowful. Have I not often told you who was almost as little, as pale, as suffering as you, and yet potent as a giant and brave as a lion?”

“Admiral Horatio?”

“Admiral Horatio, Viscount Nelson, and Duke of Bronte; great at heart as a Titan; gallant and heroic as all the world and age of chivalry; leader of the might of England; commander of her strength on the deep; hurler of her thunder over the flood.”

“A great man. But I am not warlike, Shirley; and yet my mind is so restless I burn day and night – for what I can hardly tell – to be – to do – to suffer, I think.”

“Harry, it is your mind, which is stronger and older than your frame, that troubles you. It is a captive; it lies in physical bondage. But it will work its own redemption yet. Study carefully not only books but the world. You love nature; love her without fear. Be patient – wait the course of time. You will not be a soldier or a sailor, Henry; but if you live you will be – listen to my prophecy – you will be an author, perhaps a poet.”

“An author! It is a flash – a flash of light to me! I will – I will! I’ll write a book that I may dedicate it to you.”

“You will write it that you may give your soul its natural release. Bless me! what am I saying? more than I understand, I believe, or can make good. Here, Hal – here is your toasted oatcake; eat and live!”

“Willingly!” here cried a voice outside the open window. “I know that fragrance of meal bread. Miss Keeldar, may I come in and partake?”

“Mr. Hall”—it was Mr. Hall, and with him was Louis Moore, returned from their walk—“there is a proper luncheon laid out in the dining room and there are proper people seated round it. You may join that society and share that fare if you please; but if your ill-regulated tastes lead you to prefer ill-regulated proceedings, step in here, and do as we do.”

“I approve the perfume, and therefore shall suffer myself to be led by the nose,” returned Mr. Hall, who presently entered, accompanied by Louis Moore. That gentleman’s eye fell on his desk, pillaged.

“Burglars!” said he. – “Henry, you merit the ferule.”

“Give it to Shirley and Caroline; they did it,” was alleged, with more attention to effect than truth.

“Traitor and false witness!” cried both the girls. “We never laid hands on a thing, except in the spirit of laudable inquiry!”

“Exactly so,” said Moore, with his rare smile. “And what have you ferreted out, in your ‘spirit of laudable inquiry’?”

He perceived the inner drawer open.

“This is empty,” said he. “Who has taken?”

“Here, here!” Caroline hastened to say, and she restored the little packet to its place. He shut it up; he locked it in with a small key attached to his watch-guard; he restored the other papers to order, closed the repository, and sat down without further remark.

“I thought you would have scolded much more, sir,” said Henry. “The girls deserve reprimand.”

“I leave them to their own consciences.”

“It accuses them of crimes intended as well as perpetrated, sir. If I had not been here, they would have treated your portfolio as they have done your desk; but I told them it was padlocked.”

“And will you have lunch with us?” here interposed Shirley, addressing Moore, and desirous, as it seemed, to turn the conversation.

“Certainly, if I may.”

“You will be restricted to new milk and Yorkshire oatcake.”

“Va – pour le lait frais!” said Louis. “But for your oatcake!” and he made a grimace.

“He cannot eat it,” said Henry. “He thinks it is like bran, raised with sour yeast.”

“Come, then; by special dispensation we will allow him a few cracknels, but nothing less homely.”

The hostess rang the bell and gave her frugal orders, which were presently executed. She herself measured out the milk, and distributed the bread round the cosy circle now enclosing the bright little schoolroom fire. She then took the post of toaster-general; and kneeling on the rug, fork in hand, fulfilled her office with dexterity. Mr. Hall, who relished any homely innovation on ordinary usages, and to whom the husky oatcake was from custom suave as manna, seemed in his best spirits. He talked and laughed gleefully – now with Caroline, whom he had fixed by his side, now with Shirley, and again with Louis Moore. And Louis met him in congenial spirit. He did not laugh much, but he uttered in the quietest tone the wittiest things. Gravely spoken sentences, marked by unexpected turns and a quite fresh flavour and poignancy, fell easily from his lips. He proved himself to be – what Mr. Hall had said he was – excellent company. Caroline marvelled at his humour, but still more at his entire self-possession. Nobody there present seemed to impose on him a sensation of unpleasant restraint. Nobody seemed a bore – a check – a chill to him; and yet there was the cool and lofty Miss Keeldar kneeling before the fire, almost at his feet.

But Shirley was cool and lofty no longer, at least not at this moment. She appeared unconscious of the humility of her present position; or if conscious, it was only to taste a charm in its lowliness. It did not revolt her pride that the group to whom she voluntarily officiated as handmaid should include her cousin’s tutor. It did not scare her that while she handed the bread and milk to the rest, she had to offer it to him also; and Moore took his portion from her hand as calmly as if he had been her equal.

“You are overheated now,” he said, when she had retained the fork for some time; “let me relieve you.”

And he took it from her with a sort of quiet authority, to which she submitted passively, neither resisting him nor thanking him.

“I should like to see your pictures, Louis,” said Caroline, when the sumptuous luncheon was discussed. – “Would not you, Mr. Hall?”

“To please you, I should; but, for my own part, I have cut him as an artist. I had enough of him in that capacity in Cumberland and Westmoreland. Many a wetting we got amongst the mountains because he would persist in sitting on a camp stool, catching effects of rain clouds, gathering mists, fitful sunbeams, and what not.”

“Here is the portfolio,” said Henry, bringing it in one hand and leaning on his crutch with the other.

Louis took it, but he still sat as if he wanted another to speak. It seemed as if he would not open it unless the proud Shirley deigned to show herself interested in the exhibition.

“He makes us wait to whet our curiosity,” she said.

“You understand opening it,” observed Louis, giving her the key. “You spoiled the lock for me once; try now.”

He held it. She opened it, and, monopolizing the contents, had the first view of every sketch herself. She enjoyed the treat – if treat it were – in silence, without a single comment. Moore stood behind her chair and looked over her shoulder, and when she had done and the others were still gazing, he left his post and paced through the room.

A carriage was heard in the lane – the gate bell rang. Shirley started.

“There are callers,” she said, “and I shall be summoned to the room. A pretty figure – as they say – I am to receive company. I and Henry have been in the garden gathering fruit half the morning. Oh for rest under my own vine and my own fig tree! Happy is the slave-wife of the Indian chief, in that she has no drawing room duty to perform, but can sit at ease weaving mats, and stringing beads, and peacefully flattening her pickaninny’s head in an unmolested corner of her wigwam. I’ll emigrate to the western woods.”

Louis Moore laughed.