The Complete Wyvern Mystery (All 3 Volumes in One Edition). Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

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СКАЧАТЬ this seems to me like a dream. I can't believe it; but, if it be, woe to the fool who wakes me! No, darling, it's no dream, is it?" he said, smiling, and kissed her again. "The happiest day of my life," he said, and through his eyes smiled upon her a flood of the tenderest love.

      A little more such talk, and then they sat down to that memorable cup of tea -- "the first in our own house."

      The delightful independence -- the excitement, the importance -- all our own -- cups, spoons, room, servants -- and the treasure secured, and the haven of all our hopes no longer doubtful or distant. Glorious, beautiful dream! from which death, wrinkles, duns, are quite obliterated. Sip while you may, your pleasant cup of -- madness, from that fragile, pretty china, and may the silver spoon wherewith you stir it, prove to have come into the world at the moment of your birth, where fortune is said to place it sometimes. Next morning the sun shone clear over Carwell Grange, bringing into sharp relief the joints and wrinkles of the old gray masonry, the leaves and tendrils of the ivy, and the tufts of grass which here and there sprout fast in the chinks of the parapet, and casting, with angular distinctness upon the shingled roof, the shadows of the jackdaws that circled about the old chimney. A twittering of small birds fills the air, and the solemn cawing comes mellowed on the ear from the dark rookery at the other side of the ravine, that, crossing at the side of the Grange, debouches on the wider and deeper glen that is known as the Vale of Carwell.

      Youth enjoys a change of abode, and with the instinct of change and adventure proper to its energies, delights in a new scene.

      Charles Fairfield accompanied his young wife, who was full of curiosity, and her head busy with a hundred plans, as in gay and eager spirits she surveyed her little empire.

      "This is the garden -- I tell you, lest you should mistake it for the forest where the enchanted princess slept, surrounded by great trees and thickets -- it excels even the old garden at Wyvern. There are pear-trees, and plum, and cherry, and apple. Upon my word, I forgot they were so huge, and the jungles are raspberries and gooseberries and currants. Did you ever see such thickets, and nettles between. I'm afraid you'll not make much of this. When I was a boy those great trees looked as big and mossgrown as they do now, and bore such odd crabbed little fruit, and not much even of that."

      "It will be quite beautiful when it is weeded, and flowers growing in the shade, and climbing plants trained up the stems of the trees, and it shan't cost us anything; but you'll see how wonderfully pretty it will be."

      "But what is to become of all your pretty plans, if flowers won't grow without sun. I defy any fairy -- even my own bright little one -- to make them grow here; but, if you won't be persuaded, by all means let us try. I think there's sunshine wherever you go, and I should not wonder, after all, if nature relented, and beautiful miracles were accomplished under your influence."

      "I know you are laughing at me," she said.

      "No, darling -- I'll never laugh at you -- you can make me believe whatever you choose; and now that we have looked over all the wild beauties of our neglected paradise, in which, you good little creature, you are resolved to see all kinds of capabilities and perfections -- suppose we go now to the grand review of our goods and chattels, that you planned at breakfast -- cups, saucers, plates, knives, forks, spoons, and all such varieties."

      "Oh, yes, let us come, Ry, it will be such fun, and so useful, and old Mrs. Tarnley said she would have a list made out," said Alice, to whom the new responsibilities and dignities of her married state were full of interest and importance.

      So in they came together, and called for old Mildred, with a list of their worldly goods; and they read the catalogue together, with every now and then a peal of irrepressible laughter.

      "I had not an idea how near we were to our last cup and saucer," said Charles, "and the dinner-service is limited to seven plates, two of which are cracked."

      The comic aspect of their poverty was heightened, perhaps, by Mrs. Tarnley's peculiar spelling. The old woman stood in the doorway of the sitting-room while the revision was proceeding, mightily displeased at this levity, looking more than usually wrinkled and bilious, and rolling her eyes upon them, from time to time, with a malignant ogle.

      "I was never good at the pen -- I know that -- but your young lady desired me, and I did my best, and very despickable it be, no doubt," said Mildred, with grizzly scorn.

      "Oh, my! I am so sorry -- I assure you, Mrs. Tarnley -- pray tell her, Charlie -- we were laughing only at there being so few things left."

      "Left! I don't know what ye mean by left, ma'am -- there's not another woman as ever I saw would keep his bit o' delf and chaney half as long as me; I never was counted a smasher o' things -- no more I was."

      "But we didn't think you broke them; did we, Charlie?" appealed poor little Alice, who, being new to authority, was easily bullied.

      "Nonsense, old Mildred -- don't be a fool," said Charles Fairfield, not in so conciliatory a tone as Alice would have wished.

      "Well, fool's easily said, and there's no lack o' fools, high or low, Master Charles, and I don't pretend to be no scholar; but I've read that o'er much laughing ends, oft times, in o'er much crying -- the Lord keep us all from grief."

      "Hold your tongue -- what a bore you are," exclaimed he, sharply.

      Mrs. Tarnley raised her chin, and looked askance, but made no answer, she was bitter.

      "Why the devil, old Mildred, can't you try to look pleasant for once?" he persisted. "I believe there's not a laugh in you, nor even a smile, is there?"

      "I'm not much given to laughin', thankee, sir, and there's people, mayhap, should be less so, if they'd only take warnin', and mind what they seed over night; and if the young lady don't want me no longer, I'd be better back in the kitchen before the chicken burns, for Lilly's out in the garden rootin' out the potatoes for dinner."

      And after a moment's silence she dropped a little courtesy, and assuming permission, took her departure.

      Chapter XIV.

      A Letter

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      Alice looked a little paler, her husband a little discontented. Each had a different way of reading her unpleasant speech.

      "Don't mind that old woman, darling, don't let her bore you. I do believe she has some as odious faults as are to be found on earth."

      "I don't know what she means by a warning," said Alice.

      "Nor I, darling, I am sure; perhaps she has had a winding-sheet on her candle, or a coffin flew out of the fire, or a death-watch ticked in the wainscot," he answered.

      "A warning, what could she mean?" repeated Alice, slowly, with an anxious gaze in his eyes.

      "My darling, how can you? A stupid old woman!" said he a little impatiently, "and thoroughly ill-conditioned. She's in one of her tempers, just because we laughed, and fancied it was at her; and there's nothing she'd like better than to frighten you, if she could. I'll pack her off, if I find her playing any tricks."

      "Oh, the poor old thing, not for the world; she'll make it up with me, you'll find; I don't blame her the least, if she thought that, and I'll tell her we never thought of such a thing."

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