THE WATCHER AND THE WARDENThere was a custom of Canaan, time-worn and seldom honored in the breach, which put Ariel, that afternoon, in easy possession of a coign of vantage commanding the front gate.The heavy Sunday dinner was finished in silence (on the part of Judge Pike, deafening)about three o'clock, and, soon after, Mamie tossed a number of cushions out upon the stoop between the cast-iron dogs,--Sam Warden having previously covered the steps with a rug and placed several garden chairs near by on the grass.These simple preparations concluded, Eugene sprawled comfortably upon the rug, and Mamie seated herself near him, while Ariel wandered with apparent aimlessness about the lawn, followed by the gaze of Mr.Bantry, until Miss Pike begged her, a little petulantly, to join them.
She came, looking about her dreamily, and touching to her lips, now and then, with an absent air, a clover blossom she had found in the longer grass against the fence.She stopped to pat the neck of one of the cast-iron deer, and with grave eyes proffered the clover-top first for inspection, then as food.There were those in the world who, seeing her, might have wondered that the deer did not play Galatea and come to life.
"No?" she said, aloud, to the steadfast head.
"You won't? What a mistake to be made of cast-iron!" She smiled and nodded to a clump of lilac-bushes near a cedar-tree, and to nothing else--so far as Eugene and Mamie could see,--then walked thoughtfully to the steps.
"Who in the world were you speaking to?" asked Mamie, curiously.
"That deer."
"But you bowed to some one."
"Oh, that," Ariel lifted her eyebrows,--"that was your father.Didn't you see him?""No.""I believe you can't from here, after all," said Ariel, slowly."He is sitting upon a rustic bench between the bushes and the cedar-tree, quite near the gate.No, you couldn't see him from here;you'd have to go as far as the deer, at least, and even then you might not notice him, unless you looked for him.He has a book--a Bible, I think--but I don't think he is reading.""He usually takes a nap on Sunday afternoons,"said Mamie.
"I don't think he will, to-day." Ariel looked at Eugene, who avoided her clear gaze."He has the air of having settled himself to stay for a long time, perhaps until evening."She had put on her hat after dinner, and Mamie now inquired if she would not prefer to remove it, offering to carry it in-doors for her, to Ariel's room, to insure its safety."You look so sort of temporary, wearing it," she urged, "as if you were only here for a little while.It's the loveliest hat Iever saw, and so fragile, too, but I'll take care--"Ariel laughed, leaned over, and touched the other's hand lightly."It isn't that, dear.""What is it, then?" Mamie beamed out into a joyful smile.She had felt sure that she could not understand Ariel; was, indeed, afraid of her; and she found herself astonishingly pleased to be called "dear," and delighted with the little familiarity of the hand-tap.Her feeling toward the visitor (who was, so her father had announced, to become a permanent member of the household) had been, until now, undefined.She had been on her guard, watching for some sign of conscious "superiority"in this lady who had been so long over-seas, not knowing what to make of her; though thrown, by the contents of her trunks, into a wistfulness which would have had something of rapture in it had she been sure that she was going to like Ariel.
She had gone to the latter's room before church, and had perceived uneasily that it had become, even by the process of unpacking, the prettiest room she had ever seen.Mrs.Warden, wife of Sam, and handmaiden of the mansion, was assisting, alternately faint and vociferous with marvelling.
Mamie feared that Ariel might be a little overpowering.
With the word "dear" (that is, of course, with the way it was spoken), and with the touch upon the hand, it was all suddenly settled; she would not understand Ariel always--that was clear--but they would like each other.
"I am wearing my hat," answered Ariel, "because at any moment I may decide to go for a long walk!""Oh, I hope not," said Mamie."There are sure to be people: a few still come, even though I'm an engaged girl.I expect that's just to console me, though," she added, smiling over this worn quip of the betrothed, and shaking her head at Eugene, who grew red and coughed."There'll be plenty to-day, but they won't be here to see me.It's you, Ariel, and they'd be terribly disappointed if you weren't here.I shouldn't wonder if the whole town came; it's curious enough about you!"Canaan (at least that part of it which Mamie meant when she said "the whole town") already offered testimony to her truthfulness.Two gentlemen, aged nine and eleven, and clad in white "sailor suits," were at that moment grooving their cheeks between the round pickets of the gate.
They had come from the house across the street, evidently stimulated by the conversation at their own recent dinner-table (they wore a few deposits such as are left by chocolate-cake), and the motive of their conduct became obvious when, upon being joined by a person from next door (a starched and frilled person of the opposite sex but sympathetic age), one of them waggled a forefinger through the gate at Ariel, and a voice was heard in explanation:
"THAT'S HER."
There was a rustle in the lilac-bushes near the cedar-tree; the three small heads turned simultaneously in that direction; something terrific was evidently seen, and with a horrified "OOOH!" the trio skedaddled headlong.
