Molly Elliot Seawell

“ Man-like, the Colonel was not so sure of Fortescue, and a resentment, grim and stern, rose within him. Until the young officer appeared, Betty had been quite happy and satisfied at Holly Lodge. In time, she would have married some one in the county perhaps, and would have led that peaceful life on the sunny side of the wall, which only the quiet lives know. But with Fortescue’s appearance had come the disturbing vision of a possible return to Rosehill, of a life in the great outside world, going from place to place, of the breaking of all the old ties. ”

“ She could not forget Fortescue—Betty was honest enough with herself to know that, and honorable enough to respect her own affection. Love is not killed in an hour or even a day. The great stretch of life ahead of her loomed before Betty’s eyes as one stands on the edge of a parched desert and thinks of the weary journey across it. For Betty Beverley, the coquette, was the soul of constancy. ”

“ How could she leave Holly Lodge and the Colonel and Aunt Tulip and Uncle Cesar and Kettle, and the young chickens, just hatched? Life was a practical affair with Betty, but, alas, sentiment and emotion were strong within her. She did not know how the next twenty-four hours passed, except that her eyes continually swept the narrow lane that led to the little gate of Holly Lodge. She would rather see Fortescue in the garden, and therefore dressed herself in her little pale yellow gown, and put on a great straw hat, trimmed with little yellow buds and green leaves, that was worthy of a dryad. ”

“ As Betty looked out of the window on the wintry scene, she imagined it in the first bloom of the early spring, the leaden skies turned to a sapphire blue, the frozen earth all brown and green and odoriferous, the naked branches of the trees and shrubs were transformed into their first sweet budding, and the silver river seemed dancing in the sun. Betty was a busy little soul, and had not much time for reverie, particularly as she was hard at work on her summer clothes, making dainty little muslin frocks for herself, which she could do very well. ”

“ Her rich hair, with its soft tendrils curling upon her neck, was adorned with a wreath of ivy leaves, and tiny moss rosebuds from the rosebush in the window of the sitting-room. This little wreath gave Betty the look of a woodland nymph. Aunt Tulip, who acted as lady’s maid, during the intervals of her duty as cook, housemaid, and what not, was lost in admiration, and suggested that Betty would “cert’n’y ketch a beau.” This simple flattery delighted Betty, especially as all the time she was dressing her mind was fixed upon the charms of Lieutenant John Hope Fortescue of the United States Army. ”

“ He was not so selfish as to forget Betty’s happiness, and Fortescue was a fine, upstanding young fellow, quite after the Colonel’s heart. But there was something calculated to daunt the brave soul of the old man in the thought of his few remaining years without Betty. He had been called upon to resign the love of his youth, his only son, and Rosehill, and now this little one—— At the thought, the Colonel said to himself, as he had done many times in years past, amid the hail of bullets, with cannon thundering in his ears, or in snow and sleet and starvation, “Courage! Courage!” ”

“ As she looked out of her dormer window toward Rosehill, a mysterious smile shone upon her speaking face as she saw herself once more the mistress of the fine old house. It is true there was an obstacle to be got over. This was Fortescue’s profession, because he had told her how a soldier was sent hither and yon. Betty was the last girl in the world to ask a man to give up his profession, and, most of all, the profession of arms, but youth and inexperience can rearrange, in theory, the pawns upon the chessboard of life. ”

“ The old Colonel downstairs in the sitting-room felt his heart wrung for his little Betty. Too soon had come to her those shocks and disappointments against which youth rebels. The young demand happiness of life, and are in despair when they first find they cannot secure it.
Kettle, after having taken up Betty’s tea, came downstairs again, and, instead of going into the kitchen, where he belonged, came into the sitting-room and, perching his small, black, and miserable self upon a little cricket, fixed his eyes upon the Colonel’s grave, gray face, outlined against the window-pane. ”

“ Everybody laughed and talked and nobody listened. In half an hour they were crowding out upon the lawn to mount. As it was a Christmas hunt, every horse carried in his headstall a sprig of holly berries. Of the half-dozen girls present, each had her special cavalier, Fortescue, of course, being the escort of Betty on her new mount. The hounds, impatient to be off, yelped fretfully as they trotted about with their noses to the ground, sniffing eagerly. The horses, knowing what was up, were keen to stretch their legs. ”

“ There were, however, no sighs or regrets for Betty that Christmas Eve, as she looked with shining eyes into her mirror. Her white gown, made by her own clever fingers, fitted to perfection, and revealed all the delicate loveliness of her white neck and her slender arms. Around her throat was her great-grandmother’s amethyst necklace, and her simple bodice was draped with her great-grandmother’s lace bertha. ”

“ Music and dancing were like foretastes of Heaven to Betty, who could dance twenty-five miles a night without the slightest fatigue. But she was the same gay little Betty in the long wintry days at Holly Lodge, with no one for company except her grandfather, Colonel Beverley, and his rheumatism, and Uncle Cesar and his wife, Aunt Tulip, the two old servants who had followed them into exile. ”

“ The rash and inexperienced Betty thought that it must be settled according to her ideas, and that Fortescue must wait until the Colonel was coaxed into saying what he would do in the premises. Fortescue, with a much better idea of the vicissitudes of an officer’s life, saw that Betty’s plans and compromises and dovetailings of duty were impracticable, and told her so. The bitterest quarrels on earth are those between a man and a woman who love each other, and whose anger “doth work like madness in the brain.” ”

“ Kettle, in convulsions of delight, watched him, while Aunt Tulip, in a nurse’s cap and a huge white apron, revelled in her new dignity as the baby’s mammy.
“Boy,” said the Colonel to Uncle Cesar, “give me my sword.”
Uncle Cesar took the sword down from over the mantelpiece, and the Colonel putting the hilt in the baby’s hand, said to him:
“I give you this sword. It is all I have to give, but it is much, for the sword means honor, and you must keep your honor virgin, and without rust or decay, like this sword. And it means courage. You must fear no one but God. ”

“ At half past eight, Sally Carteret, in the big family carriage, came for Betty, and the two girls drove over to Red Plains. The ball was a replica of the dance at Marrowbone. It is not often in life that one can live over so much as a single hour of happiness, but Betty lived over a whole evening of joy. There was Fortescue, who claimed her hand ruthlessly for many dances, and his brother officers, who were scarcely less fascinating to Betty, and the University students, who assumed great intimacy upon short acquaintance, and old friends, with whom she had danced at dancing school. ”

“ But Betty shook her head.
“You don’t know my grandfather,” she said. “He has a very independent spirit. How could a man who has lived his life here for so many years go from place to place? He must live and die here.”
“He can go and live at Rosehill if he wants to,” answered Fortescue, who was disposed to brush away all obstacles. “My father is pretty good to me, and he will do anything I ask him about the place.”
“But Granddaddy would never consent to be a pensioner on anybody, I am sure,” continued Betty, with a doleful little smile. ”

“ At this point, Betty’s brow smoothed out, her eyes assumed a beatific expression, and her rosy lips came wide open, showing a lovely, elusive dimple in her left cheek.
“It is no use denying it, it is a fact and a very agreeable one, but, as Aunt Tulip says, ‘Beauty ain’t nothin’; behavior’s all.’ Your good looks won’t amount to anything if you are a coward and a poltroon; and you, a soldier’s daughter and granddaughter, with no more pluck than a chicken! ”

“ To lose perfect happiness by accident or the fault of another is hard enough, but to lose it by one’s [Pg 188] own folly and rashness was heartbreaking to Betty’s frank soul and candid temperament.
“But, after all,” thought Betty, when in these twilight walks she glanced toward the pile of Rosehill, mute and dark and uninhabited, “it could not have been. How is it possible that I, Betty Beverley, should ever be the mistress of Rosehill, and have Grandfather with me and be the wife of Fortescue? No, it was too much. The gods are none too generous. ”

“ The musicians played with the fire and enthusiasm peculiar to their race. The fiddlers wagged their heads, beat time with their feet, flourished their bows, while the youth with the “lap organ” stood up and fairly danced with delight as the strains of “Forked Deer” and “Billy in the Low Grounds” rent the air.
When the two ends of the reel were danced, Major Lindsay and Betty tripped down the middle, the Major cutting the pigeon-wing and taking many quaint and curious steps, which were followed by Betty’s twinkling feet. ”

“ By much scheming and saving, Betty had acquired enough money to buy for the Colonel a military history in several volumes, for which he had expressed a wish. Equally, with infinite pains and secrecy, the Colonel had contrived out of his scanty purse to buy for Betty a little locket and chain; and there were simple presents for Uncle Cesar and Aunt Tulip, useful things that would make them more comfortable. And from the two old faithful servants were humble gifts that were highly rated by Betty and the Colonel. Then there were the preparations for the Christmas dinner the next day. ”

“ Fortunately, Sally Carteret, knowing that old Whitey had to be saved for the hunt, had invited Betty to go with her to the party that evening at Red Plains, which was close by.
”Do you mean,” asked Fortescue, “that you are to miss the hunt?”
“I am afraid so,” said poor Betty dolefully.
“But that isn’t to be thought of,” cried Fortescue. “I have several horses at Rosehill, and I can give you a mount. Birdseye, that I rode over here, is the gentlest and kindest horse that ever stepped. Although not a regular hunter, she can get along the road and over the fences all right.” ”

“ Betty tripped up the steps, and Major Lindsay gallantly escorted her into the wide hall.
Within this great hall were Christmas mirth and cheeriness, and laughter and bright eyes and gay smiles. The house, following the plan of most houses of eastern Virginia, had a splendid great hall, big enough for a ball-room, and always used for dancing; for the people of Virginia are inveterate dancers, and a house is but poorly provided which cannot furnish space for balls. ”

“ Once, he had laughed at her outrageous flattery of other men, her open cajolery, her pretty coquetries. Suppose, after all, she had no feeling, and was making sport of his honest heart? Perhaps she had never meant to marry him, and was only amusing herself. There might be another man—at this, Fortescue ground his teeth.
They walked the whole length of the lane without speaking. When they got to the paling surrounding the little lawn of Holly Lodge, Betty spoke, but her evil genius waited upon her tongue that day.
“Of course,” she said, “as we can’t agree, everything is over. ”

“ Fortescue told me he thought that a white muslin gown at Christmas time, with scarlet ribbons and a wreath of geranium leaves, with moss rosebuds, was the most beautiful and poetic costume a girl could wear.”
The Colonel’s white teeth showed under his trim gray moustache.
“Fortescue knows how to pay compliments, my dear,” he said.
“All right,” cried Betty. “A man who doesn’t know how to pay compliments and isn’t equal to telling colossal fibs to the girl he is dancing with, isn’t the man for me.”
When breakfast was over Uncle Cesar brought in the only melancholy news of the day. ”

“ KETTLE AND OTHER THINGS
Meanwhile, things had happened at Holly Lodge. The Colonel had taken out his violin and played dreamily the old airs, von Weber’s “Last Waltz,” “Love Not,” and “Bygone Hours.” At sixty-eight, one has many Christmas days to look back upon. The faithful heart of Aunt Tulip in the kitchen was touched when the delicate strains of the violin floated upon the air.
“Ole Marse, he jes’ cipherin’.” Ciphering, in the negro language, means brooding with sadness and melancholy. ”