Brown Bess

“ Though her sight was not long and her weight was not small,
Yet her actions were winning, her language was clear;
And everyone bowed as she opened the ball
On the arm of some high-gaitered, grim grenadier. ”

“ XLII Jeffray stood gripping his pistols in the cottage room, driven by strange stress of circumstances to fight for a peasant girl against a crowd of cursing and sweating smugglers. He had never stood forward as a hero among his peers, those blue-eyed, plump-bellied worthies who preached or swore in the pulpit and at the dining-table. Slim, sensitive, yet strong now as a band of steel, he waited, watching the door heave and creak beneath the weight of Dan’s great body. Bess, kneeling behind her chair, was plying the ramrod. ”

“ She lay still, yet shivering a little, the vision still playing before her eyes. A low wind had risen, and she could hear it moving in the boughs of the trees without. Beams of moonlight came slanting through the casement to shine upon the polished panelling of an old cupboard that stood against the wall. The cottage seemed utterly still and dark. Bess started up in bed on her elbow of a sudden, her hair falling down upon the pillow, her eyes shining even in the dusk of the room. ”

“ How many poor souls live and die with most of their energies dormant.
There had never been but one dream to Dil’s life, and that was Bess. Here her imagination had some play. When they took their outings through the more respectable streets for the cleanliness and quiet, or paused awhile in the green and flowery squares, she sometimes “made believe” that Bess was the lovely child in the elegant carriage, with wraps of eider down and 121 lace, and she the nurse-maid in white apron and cap who trundled her along jauntily. ”

“ She eyed the Frenchwoman a little haughtily, glanced at herself in the pier-glass, put back the stray strands of black hair over her ears, and smiled as her eyes met Jeffray’s.
“I am afraid we are taxing your ingenuity, madame,” he said, to the aristocratic little lady, with a grave smile.
The Frenchwoman, with her gray ringlets, gave a merry and meaning laugh, glided up to Bess, took off the gray cloak, her deft hands fluttering white and delicate about the girl’s body.
“Ah, no, a pleasure, monsieur. A Frenchwoman is never taken by surprise. Come. ”

“ You'd die in this snow. Say, boy, do you suppose they've got shelter? It's not Dan Witham I care for, whether he's dead or not, but Little Bess."
Henry Burns stepped in front of the old woman, and looked into her eyes.
"What do you care whether Bess is lost or not?" he asked. "She don't belong to you. She's not yours. You're not her grandmother." ”

“ Presently he knew, by light of this adventure on the ice, that Bess was more than mere companion in toil and hardship, some one to shelter and protect. She was a comrade-at-arms,—such a fortress of strength as the best of women have always been to the men they loved. ”

“ The rest of the time I just lie here and think till I get cross, and everything seems awful."
"Why do you 'just lie here and think,' then?" asked Bess, feeling that here was a chance to make a good suggestion. "You are strong enough now to go to drive every pleasant day. Why don't you?"
"I don't know; I don't want to," said Fred, as the quick color came to his cheeks, that were beginning to have a more healthy look. ”

“ And all the time she went on picking, never once overlooking her hand. She was a large woman, belligerent of aspect, and Bess was only a woman and not prone to fisticuffs. So the invader picked until she could pick no more, said "Good-day," and sailed majestically away.
"People have really grown worse in the last several years, I think," said Bess to me in a tired sort of voice that night, as we sat in the library after dinner.
Next day I was inclined to agree with her. "There's a woman and a little girl heading straight for the poppies," said May, a maid about the bungalow. ”

“ Bess would turn back, in her red petticoat, white cap and apron, into the kitchen and sing softly to herself as she turned the joint on the spit, polished the pewter, or peeled apples for a tart. As yet she knew nothing of Jeffray’s betrothal to Miss Hardacre, and in her simple and passionate way she let her imagination roam at will. It was more a rare and sensuous dream with the girl, a passing and repassing of mysterious and alluring visions. Practical as she was in the trivialities of life, she became a desirous-eyed child of nature when love opened the gates of the sunset and of the dawn. ”

“ It’s horrid to feel you’re in the way, Miss Bessie!”
“I wish I could keep you always, Fred,” said Bess seriously, for she felt the pain in the child’s voice and face, as he spoke of his absent mother.
“I just wish you could! You are as good as a mother and sister and brother, all at once. But you said that night, ever so long ago, that I mustn’t wish I was dead, or out of the way, or anything, because that’s cowardly; but what can I do, when I know I’m going to be in everybody’s way?”
“But you aren’t, Fred. We all need you and want you with us. ”

“ The embers of the fire still glowed on the hearth, and the kitchen reeked of Isaac’s tobacco. Creeping to the cottage door, she took down the bar noiselessly and shot back the bolts. Without the world seemed built up of magic, the moonlight flooding down upon the orchards and the woods. Bess shut the door gently, passed through the garden, and half ran across the open grass-land betwixt the cottage and the forest. She took the path leading up towards the heath about the Beacon Rock, and, gathering her cloak round her, fled away into the moon-streaked shadows. ”

“ Mrs. West sat quietly beside her, soothing her, gently touching her brow and hands. At length the quiet, regular respirations told her that Bess had fallen asleep. She softly folded a blanket about the girl; then, replenishing the fire in the grate, sat down to watch and wait until she should awaken. Once, when she could not hear a breath nor see the slight movement of the blanket, she hastily touched the unconscious form. The eyes opened for a moment, then, with a smile upon her lips Bess immediately relapsed into sleep. ”

“ When quiet was restored, Bess went on quite seriously:—
“Now, my boys, I don’t want you to be selfish in starting this club. It is for us all to enjoy together, and I want you to help me make it a great success; but most of all it is for Fred. He tries so hard not to be shy with you, but it is hard for him when he doesn’t see you but once in a long time. He needs boys and boy fun now, more than anything else, and he is staying with me so much that there is danger of his growing girlish and—and—what is it you call it?—a mollycoddle.” ”

“ Last night she lost her breath more than common; and once, after she had stopped to puff a minute, she struck in again, full tilt, about an octave and a half higher than we were, and it made a most awful noise.”
“Poor old woman!” said Bess, trying to speak soberly, while Fred’s shoulders shook. “You shouldn’t laugh at such old people, Robin. Where’s your chivalry?”
“I can’t help it, cousin Bess. It was too funny to hear her go ‘peep,’ way up high.” ”

“ Neither of the boys had ever before travelled all night, and it seemed so cosy to go gliding away through the darkness that was slowly shutting in the landscape. There were few people in the car, and Rob prowled up and down, investigating his quarters, and making the acquaintance of the porter; while Bess chatted with Fred, at ease once more now that his dreaded neighbor had departed.
“I wish people wouldn’t say such things,” he told Bess. “Once in a while I forget, but somebody always reminds me again, and it just makes me feel as if everybody was watching me.” ”

“ I fell in readily with Constance’s little plans for a village fête, and offered the old bowling green as a site for it to take place. “The bowling green,” I said, “is very sheltered; it is surrounded on three sides with yew hedges, and I am delighted at the idea of Bess appearing as the queen of the revels.”
Bess is to be attired all in white with a crown of flaming marsh marigolds on her head, and to bear in her hand a staff decorated with primroses, cowslips, and sprays of beech and willow. ”

“ The wood fire was burning brightly on the irons, the light twinkling on the pewter, and playing with the shadows in the dark corners of the room. She tried the door softly—found that Dan had locked it and taken the key. With a feeling of tense excitement, Bess unlatched the casement, climbed out on to the ledge, and slipped down into the garden. She stood listening a moment, cowering under the shadow of the wall, and looking out into the dark. She could see a light twinkling behind the kitchen window of Isaac’s cottage and hear voices coming gruffly out of the gloom. ”

“ Besides which, secretly I felt convinced she was hopeful of sharing my meals, and lying later on the bed when no one was looking.
“Old Mouse is no good,” retorted Bess, disdainfully. “She only follows grown-up people. If I lived in 8 heaven,” she added dreamily, “I should have a real, live dog, that would walk with me, although I was only a child cherubim.”
“Well,” I pursued, “but what are you going to do?”
“Me?” inquired Bess, with small attention to grammatical niceties. “When I’ve done my lessons I shall go out with Burbidge. ”

“ She smoothed his pillow, talked to him in her quaint, bold way, and altogether reconciled Richard to his lodging for the night. Solomon Grimshaw, Isaac’s brother, had ridden over on his pony to Rodenham to ease the Lady Letitia of any anxiety on her nephew’s account. Bess had brought Jeffray a quill, inkhorn, and paper, and stood by the bed watching the man’s clever hand at work. He was a being full of strangeness and mystery to this forest elf, who had learned to look on men of coarser fibre. ”

“ Bess’s beauty had become an apple of discord in the hamlet; all the young men wanted her, and Black Dan would put up with no rival. Isaac spoke mysteriously of the need for good-fellowship among the forest-folk; there must be no mating of Bess to a bachelor outside the hamlet; she was one of them and with them she must remain. Old Ursula looked surly and displeased during the patriarch’s harangue. The match was little to her liking, and she distrusted Dan’s ability to make marriage bearable to such a woman as Bess. ”

“ To him, Miss Bess was the one person in the world, and well might he feel so, for she was most unselfishly kind to him. From the moment when, on leaving his room in the morning, he met her at the door, ready to guide him down the unfamiliar stairs, until, after he was all in bed, she came in to say a last good-night, she was constant in her attentions to him, and adapted herself to his every mood, bright and full of fun when he was blue, encouraging when he was despondent, and with apparently nothing to do but read to him or talk with him. ”

“ Ever and again the poop-windows were drenched and darkened by the waves that broke over the stern of the ship. Bess was half lying on her bunk, with her red cloak wrapped round her, Jeffray leaning against the bulkhead, with the St. Thomas à Kempis, that had been his father’s, open in his hand. Captain George looked at them as though half dazed, blood running down his face to soak into his ragged beard.
“Well, captain, what news for us?”
“News!” and the man laughed with a spasmodic croaking in the throat. “We’re going to the bottom as fast as the ship can take in water.” ”

“ She was near Jeffray; sometimes her knee touched his. They could almost hear each other breathing, while the sweet smell of the wet woods steamed up like incense into the night.
Jeffray appeared sunk in thought. He looked often at Bess with kindlings of tenderness in his eyes. The pleasurableness of life seemed to steal into either heart, chastened by a melancholy born of the troubled happenings of the day. They remembered, both of them, the dead man lying in the grass. It seemed that the blood-red flower of Bess’s dream had colored forth the shedding of Dan’s blood. ”

“ The butler was sitting by the open window of Richard’s room, watching for Surgeon Stott and listening to his master’s delirious mutterings. It was Mrs. Barbara who opened the door to Bess that morning and stared at her in some surprise. Mrs. Barbara was a sour-tempered person, very sure of her own importance; nor had the flight of her maids tended to sanctify her resentful soul.
“Well, what d’you want, eh?”
Bess colored under the woman’s curious stare. There was nothing suggestive of courtesy in Mrs. Gladden’s manner.
“I have come to see Mr. Jeffray.” ”

“ Surely she was the most wonderful teacher in the world, and Elizabeth adored her. “Anything more like an angel than Miss Jewett could not possibly be,” she confided to Betsy at recess, “especially when she plays the violin.”
“But angels play on harps,” objected Bess Ferguson who had joined them.
“They don’t always,” returned Elizabeth, “for I’ve seen pictures of them with violins; Betsy’s uncle Rob has one among the photographs he brought from Europe.” ”

“ Bess had been vexing her ingenuity to discover how she might charm from Dan the secret of the brooch. This golden bauble starred with its emerald eyes seemed to her the one talisman that could break the silence of the past. She had tried to charm some confession from old Ursula, but the dame would tell Bess nothing, despite her grievance against Isaac. Thus when Dan, surly and morose, came in to Bess at supper-time, and told her curtly that he would be out with his gun that night, the girl grew keen and alert as a deer that scents peril on the wind. ”