The Son Of Royal Langbrith. William Dean Howells

Чтение книги онлайн.

      “ ‘ For God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground,

      And tell sad stories of the deaths of kings.’ ”

      Jessamy had not minded the hoyden prank in which he took her at her word, but the name he seemed to invoke so lightly shocked her. She drew her face down and looked grave.

      “It isn’t swearing, Jessamy,” Hope Hawberk reassured her; “it’s only Shakespeare. Mr. Langbrith never talks anything but Shakespeare, you know.” She had a deep, throaty voice, which gave weight to her irony.

      “Oh, all right,” said Jessamy. “Susie, you wicked thing, have you got that salt? Why, of course! I never brought it from the dining-room. Here, sit by Mr. Langbrith, as Hope calls him—his Christian name used to be Jim—and keep him from Shakespearing, while I go for it.”

      “You might get him a plate, too,” Falk called after her. Susie coiled herself softly, kitten-like, down on the rug at Langbrith’s side. “I’m going to eat out of the dish.”

      “Hope, don’t you let him!” Jessamy screamed on her way to the dining-room.

      When she came back, she distributed the plates among her guests, and with one, in which Hope had put her a portion of corn, she stood behind them. “Bless you, my children,” she said. “Now, trot out your kings, Jimmy—Mr. Langbrith, I should say.”

      “Oh no,” Langbrith protested; “ghosts. We oughtn’t to tell anything less goose-fleshing than ghost-stories before this fire.”

      “Why, I thought you said your kings were dead. Good kings, dead kings!” Jessamy added, with no relation of ideas. “Or is it Indians?”

      Anything served. They were young, and alone —joyful mysteries to themselves and to one another. They talked and laughed. They hardly knew what they said, and not at all why they laughed.

      At nine o’clock, Jessamy’s father and mother came home, and with them someone whose voice they knew. The elders discreetly went up-stairs, when Jessamy called out to whoever it was had come with them, “Come in here, Harry Matthewson.”

      They received him with gay screams, Jessamy having dropped to her knees beside the others, for the greater effect upon the smiling young fellow who came in rubbing his hands.

      “Well, well!’’ he said.

      “ Now this is a little too pat,” Langbrith protested, and he gave the invitation which he had come with, and which met with no dissent.

      “ It is a vote,” said Matthewson, with the authority of a young lawyer beginning to take part in town meetings.

      “Well, now,” Langbrith said, getting to his feet, “the business of the meeting being over, I move Falk and I adjourn.”

      “No, no, don’t let him, Mr. Falk! You don’t want to go, do you?”

      “Only for a breath of air. I’m nearly roasted.”

      Matthewson laughed. “ I wondered what you were sitting round the fire for; it’s as mild as May out, and there’s a full moon.”

      “A full moon?” Jessamy put out her hand for him to help her up. The other girls put out their hands for help, too. “Then I’ll tell you what. We’ll go home with the poor things, and see that the goblins don’t get them. What do you say, girls?”

      "Oh! they say ‘yes.’ Don’t you, girls?” Langbrith entreated, with clasped hand.

      The young men helped them put on their wraps. Jessamy, when she was fully equipped for the adventure, called up-stairs to her mother: “Mamma, I am going out for a few minutes.” Her mother shrieked back: “Jessamy Colebridge, don’t you do it. You’ll take your death.”

      “No, I won’t, mamma. The air will do my cold good,” and she closed the debate by shutting the door behind her. “Now, that’s settled,” she said. “Where shall we go first?”

      The notion of going home with Langbrith and Falk seemed to be relinquished. They went about from one house to another, where there were girls of their acquaintance, and sang before their gates or under their windows. At the first sign of consciousness within, they fled with shrieks and shouts.

      In the assortment of couples, Matthewson led the way with Susie Johns, Falk followed with Jessamy, Langbrith and Hope were paired. Sometimes, the girls ran on alone; sometimes, in the dark places, they took the young men’s arms.

      They saw each other to their houses; then, not to be outdone in civility, the girls who were left came away with those who had left them. It promised never to end, and no one seemed to care. The joy of their youth had gone to their heads in a divine madness, in which differences of temperament were merged and they were all alike.

      Langbrith did not know how it happened that he was at last taking leave of Hope Hawberk alone at her gate. He stooped over to whisper something. She pulled her hand from his arm, and said, “ Don’t be silly!” and ran up the walk to her door. The elastic weight of her hand remained on his arm.