Only a Girl's Love. Garvice Charles

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СКАЧАТЬ a moment he sat motionless, and as he sat the moon fell full upon his face, and Stella saw the face of the portrait whose eyes she had but a few minutes since hidden from her sight.

      A lifetime of emotion may pass in a minute; a life's fate hangs upon the balance of a stroke of time. It was only for a moment that they looked into each other's eyes in silence, but that moment meant so much to each of them! It was the horse that broke the spell by attempting to rise again. With a slight movement of the hand Leycester Wyndward forced him down, and then slid from the saddle and stood at Stella's feet, hat in hand.

      Even then he paused as if afraid, lest a word should cause the vision to vanish into thin air; but at last he opened his lips.

      "I beg your pardon."

      That was all. Four words only, and words that one hears daily; words that have almost lost their import from too familiar commonplace, and yet, as he said them, they sounded so entirely, so earnestly, so intensely significant and full of meaning that all the commonplace drifted from them, and they conveyed to the listener's ear a real and eager prayer for forgiveness; so real and earnest that to have passed them by with the conventional smile and bow would have been an insult, and impossible.

      But it was not only the words and the tone, but the voice that thrilled through Stella's soul, and seemed to wake an echoing chord. The picture which had so awed her had been dumb and voiceless; but now it seemed as if it had spoken even as it had smiled, and for a moment she felt a woman's desire to shut out the sound, as she had shut out the smiling eyes.

      It was the maidenly impulse of self-protection, against what evil she did not know or dream.

      "I beg your pardon," he said again, his voice deep and musical, his eyes raised to hers. "I am afraid I frightened you. I thought I was alone here. Will you forgive me?"

      Stella looked down at him, and a faint color stole into her cheeks.

      "It is I who should beg pardon; I am not frightened, but your horse was – and by me?"

      He half glanced at the horse standing quiet enough now, with its bridle over his arm.

      "He is an idiot!" he said, quickly; "an obstinate idiot, and incapable of fear. It was mere pretense."

      "For which you punished him," said Stella, with a quick smile.

      He looked up at her, and slowly there came into his eyes and his lips that smile of which Mr. Etheridge had spoken, and which Stella had foreseen.

      "You are afraid I am going to whip him again?"

      "Yes," she said, with simple directness.

      He looked at her with a curious smile.

      "You are right," he said; "I was. There are times when he requires a little correction; to-night is one of them. We have not seen each other for some little time, and he has forgotten who is master. But I shall not forget your 'No,' and will spare the whip; are you satisfied?"

      It was a strange speech, closing with a strangely abrupt question. It was characteristic of the speaker, who never in all his life probably had known for a moment what nervousness or embarrassment meant. Judging by his tone, the easy flow of the musical voice, the frank, open manner, one would have imagined that this meeting with a strange and beautiful girl was the most matter-of-fact affair.

      "Are you satisfied?" he repeated, as Stella remained silent, trying to fight against the charm of his simple and direct manner. "If not, perhaps that will do it?" and taking the whip, a strong hunter's crop, in both his white hands, he broke it in two as easily as if it were a reed, and flung it over his shoulder.

      Stella flushed, but she laughed, and her dark eyes beamed down upon him with serious archness.

      "Does not that look as if you were afraid you should not keep your promise?"

      He smiled up at her.

      "It does," he said – "you are right; I may have been tempted beyond my strength. He is a bad-tempered beast, and I am another. Why do you laugh – ?"

      He broke off, his voice changing as subtly as some musical instrument.

      Stella hesitated a moment.

      "I beg you will tell me – I shall not be offended."

      She laughed, and clung with one hand to the lilac, looking down on him.

      "I was thinking how fortunate it was that he could not whip you. It is not fair, as you are both so bad-tempered, that one only should get punished."

      He did not laugh, as another man would have done; but there came into the dark eyes a flash of surprised amusement, such as might have shone in those of the giant Gulliver when some Liliputian struck him with a pin-sized stick; and his lips parted with a smile.

      "It was a natural reflection," he said, after a pause. "Will you let me help you down?"

      Stella shook her head. Somehow she felt safe up there above him, where but the dark eyes could reach her.

      "Thank you, no; I am gathering some lilac. Do not trouble."

      And she turned slightly from him, and stretched up her hand for a branch above her head. The next moment he sprang up the bank lightly, and stood beside her.

      "Permit me," he said. And with one sweep he drew the fragrant branch within her reach.

      "And now will you come down?" he asked, as if she were some willful child. Stella smiled, and he held out his hand. She put hers into it, and his fingers closed over it with a grasp firm as steel, but as smooth as a woman's. As the warm fingers closed over hers, which were cold with her long grasp of the branch above her head, a thrill ran through her and caused her to shudder slightly.

      "You are cold," he said, instantly. "The Spring evenings are treacherous. Have you far to go?"

      "I am not cold, thanks," she said, with quick alarm, for there was a look in his eyes and a movement of his hand which seemed to give warning that he was about to take his coat off.

      "I am not at all cold!"

      "Have you far to go?" he repeated, with the air, gentle as it was, of a man who was accustomed to have his questions answered.

      "Not far; to the little white gate there," she answered.

      "The little white gate – to Etheridge's, the artist's?" he said gently, with a tone of surprise.

      Stella bent her head; his eyes scanned her face.

      "You live there – are staying there?"

      "Yes."

      "I never saw you in Wyndward before."

      "No, I was never here till to-night."

      "Till to-night?" he echoed. "I knew that I had not seen you before."

      There was something in the tone, wholly unlike commonplace flattery, that brought the color to Stella's face.

      They had reached the gate by this time, he walking by her side, the bridle thrown over his arm, the great horse pacing quiet and lamb-like, and Stella stopped.

      "Good-night," she said.

      He СКАЧАТЬ