Dalecarlia

“ Each wheel is worked by two young Dalecarlian girls, who perform this severe labour with the utmost cheerfulness, while an old woman steers. They pass their lives upon the water, plying from earliest dawn till late in the night, and conveying passengers, for a trifling copper coin, across the broad canals which intersect Stockholm in every direction. Cheerful and pious, the bloom of health on her cheeks, and the fear of God in her heart, the Dalecarlian maiden is contented in her humble calling. ”

“ But, in the meanwhile, he went up to the danneman, and said to him, in his own language:
“Friend, since in your character of guide you are to go in advance with our dear Christian, keep close to him, I implore you. It is his first trial.”
The Dalecarlian was greatly surprised, and could not understand, at [Pg 393] first, what the major meant; he made him repeat the warning, and then, looking at Christian attentively, shook his head.
“He is a handsome young man,” he said, “and he has a good heart, I am sure! He ate my kakebroe as if he had never done anything else all his life ”

“ The girl was too frightened to speak as she clung to her lover’s arm, but Darley, perceiving that an amicable settlement was out of the question, replied in the same tone,—
‘What right have you to ask, sir?’
‘The right of a father, Mr Darley, who has no intention to let disgrace be brought into his family by such as you.’
He pulled Rosa by the arm roughly as he spoke, and dragged the shawl from her face.
‘So it is you, you jade; and you would try and deceive your father, who has never refused you a thing in his life. That’s the gratitude of women. However, you’ll pay for it. ”

“ Dalrymple that I mind—putting him to pain."
"Why, my dear Marjie!" for Marjory's eyes were full.
"I can't help it, father. I am cross, I know; but I can't bear to think how Mr. Dalrymple will feel, when he has so longed for the Hall to be always Hermione's home."
Mr. Fitzalan looked up again. "The old story; always trying to choose for those we love! How can Mr. Dalrymple tell what will be for Hermione's happiness?"
"No; only he does wish, and it is so natural to wish. ”

“ Darley knelt beside the little dusky figure in the rocker. How sweet it is to have the woman you love speak to you like this, and to hear her voice tremble, and to feel that she cares for you!
“No, I don't want you to say good-by,” he said, very gently. “I want you to tell me not to go. Can't you see that the thought of leaving you has been like the thought of eternal darkness to me? I love you, and I want you for my own, always, that I may never know the bitterness of good-by!” Miss Charteris turned her head, and Darley saw that the gray eyes he loved so well were wet. ”

“ Florence shall have it the day you marry Lawrence Severance.'”
Darley started as if stung. “Eh?” he exclaimed, “I don't understand!”
“Then listen. 'Oh, ho!' quoth Lawrence, when he grew up and understood the story. 'So that is the way of love, is it? Well, there are more fortunes than Aunt Mary's in the world.' And away went Lawrence, nothing daunted, to win—what I hear he has won—double the fortune that Bella, in marrying him, hands over to me.”
“Then you mean to say that this—money comes to you; that you are a rich woman, in fact?” Darley's tone was almost bitten. ”

“ Mr. Dalrymple was not angry with his great-nephew—not nearly so angry as was Marjory Fitzalan. It did not come upon him as a matter for displeasure. That which had so grieved Marjory—the slight conveyed to himself in Harvey's silence—scarcely weighed at all, for it was lost in the sharper trouble of his slain desire. Westford never could belong to Hermione! There lay the real grief. ”

“ My love has no past participle, Darley! I shall always love her! I shall always think her the sweetest woman in the world, and the best! There is no other like her—God bless her! But you are sleepy, old fellow; and even Rosy is yawning and thinks it is time all decent people went to bed. Let us have one of the old-time horns, one of those old camp-fire nips—and then to bed. ”

“ It irked me to see Dallach when he first fell to his meat last night, how he ate like a dog for fear and famine. How shall it be, moreover, when we have them in the Dale, and they fall to the deed of kind there, as they needs must. Will they not bear us evil and thrall-like men?’
‘Maybe,’ said Stone-face, ‘and maybe not; for they have been thralls but for a little while: and I deem that in no long time shall ye see them much bettered by plenteous meat and rest. And after all is said, this Dallach bore him like a valiant man; also it was valiant of him to flee ”

“ So they tarried no more, but set out on the homeward way; and Face-of-god bade Dallach walk beside him, and asked him such concerning Rose-dale and its Dusky Men. Dallach told him that these were not so many as they were masterful, not being above eight hundreds of men, all fighting-men. As to women, they had none of their own race, but lay with the Daleswomen at their will, and begat children of them; and all or most of the said children favoured the race of their begetters. Of the men-children they reared most, but the women-children they slew at once ”

“ He always did when a woman was in the question. “You can't walk,” he said; “I shall have to carry you.”
Miss Charteris' pale cheeks assumed a rapid flush. “I can walk,” she said, hastily.
“Very well,” said Darley, gently. “Take my arm.”
A few painful steps proved to Miss Charteris that she could walk, at the expense of excruciating agony. So, being a sensible little soul, she stopped.
“You see, it is impossible,” said her knight. “You will have to let me carry you, Miss Charteris. I beg your pardon for not introducing myself. I am Mr. Percy Darley, a guest at Mr. John Leonard's.” ”

“ After the boys had left, the languorous October days passed very slowly at The Dale, and Elizabeth's energies of both body and mind soon began to cry out for a wider field of activity.
She was hourly oppressed with a sense of her own uselessness, a feeling her aunt's aggrieved manner tended to foster. Her heart smote her as she saw everyone at work but herself. She tried to help her father with his township affairs, but he met all her offers of assistance with his indulgent smile, and the remark that little girls could not understand business, and she must not bother her head. ”

“ Sudden feebleness, coming upon a strong and healthy man, is altogether another matter; and young as Hermione was, she might have known that difference.
She did for a moment feel uneasy when Harvey remarked, "You ought not to have gone to Church this evening;" and her grandfather answered, "No; I almost wish I had not." Would it not have been better if she had given the message? But Mr. Dalrymple might not have followed the advice; and a good-night would restore him. On the whole, however, Hermione hoped for the non-appearance of Mr. Fitzalan. ”

“ But she was of the Princes of Gerano, and there must be one of them for an abbess, and the lot fell upon her. There is the whole history. You may hear her singing sometimes, if you stand under the garden wall, on the narrow path after the Benediction hour and before Ave Maria. But I am a fool to tell you, for you will go and listen, and when you have heard her voice you will be like a madman. You will fall in love with her. I was a fool to tell you."
"Well? And if I do fall in love with her, who cares?" Dalrymple slowly filled a glass of wine. ”

“ Fitzalan, and strong in build, with a sunburnt healthy look, therein a marked contrast to Marjory.
"Poor Hermione!" he repeated, with a touch of mockery. "You need not trouble yourself, Marjory. It was all graceful attitudes and lovely looks—nothing more."
Marjory's eyes filled. "O Harry! indeed you are mistaken."
"I wish I were. She didn't shed a tear—but tears are not becoming, you know." Harry spoke somewhat doggedly, as if determined to stand by his own opinion. "I never do understand female stoicism. It is unnatural. And such a man as Mr. Dalrymple!" ”

“ Dalrymple's health, but said with her pretty girlish dignity, "Harvey has behaved very wrongly. I do not wonder that my grandfather is unhappy."
"Has he told you any particulars about the lady of his choice?" asked Mr. Fitzalan, rather anxious to ward off an exciting duet of condemnation between the two girls. Marjory looked worn enough already. He knew that a very little more would incapacitate her for the afternoon's work.
"Not much. I have not cared to ask," Hermione answered. "He does not deserve that we should show interest. ”

“ Selwyn know exactly what Mr. Dalrymple intended to do for Hermione? Did Mr. Dalrymple intend to leave Hermione twenty thousand pounds?"
Harvey was on the verge of being very angry. He could have been so. Julia's persistency was most amazing. If she had not looked so thin and changed, and if this had not been his first glimpse of her, he would have got up and walked out of the room. Somehow he could not resolve on this step, neither did he dare to agitate her by any marked show of displeasure.
"My dear, do you know that you are meddling in business matters? Women know nothing about business." ”

“ I will help her with all my heart, if you will only tell me what I am to do."
'"I want you to petition the Queen for her," continued Lady Dalrymple, trying to control herself and speak calmly. "She will listen to you. She cannot deny a husband pleading for his wife. Can she?" And Lady Dalrymple laid her hand on my shoulder, and looked at me for a moment, with an expression in her eyes as if she was not quite sure whether she meant to laugh or cry. It reminded me of the smile with which she had greeted me that night when Sir Harry first presented me to her at Horsemandown ”

“ Lucilla paused in perplexity.
"Does Mr. Gordon waltz?" Rachel meekly inquired.
[296]
"Oh, no doubt—sure to. I have never seen him, but all those old army men dance well."
"Then I suppose Mr. Dalrymple dances well?"
"Of course he does. Poor fellow, he excels in everything that is of no consequence. Oh, yes, Mr. Dalrymple is decidedly an acquisition in a ball-room, whatever he may be elsewhere."
"Lucilla!"
"What, dear?"
"Why do you all speak of him in that hard way? You are so kind to everybody else, but for him nobody seems to have a good word. I think it is so cruel!" ”

“ Dale led was not altogether an easy life,—was not devoid of much painful effort on her part. The theory of her life one may say was this—that she should bury herself in order that her daughters might live well above ground. And in order to carry out this theory, it was necessary that she should abstain from all complaint or show of uneasiness before her girls. Their life above ground would not be well if they understood that their mother, in this underground life of hers, was enduring any sacrifice on their behalf. ”

“ As your mother says, you can’t go on indefinitely without some older woman, and your aunt is the obvious elder.”
Now the said Aunt Emmeline was a sister of Hanson, ten years his senior, a spinster devoted to good works, and most uncomfortably and obtrusively High Church. When Aunt Emmeline fasted, the recording angel and the cook were not the only ones to know it, and she managed to cast a gloom like a London fog over even the cheerful Dalehouse family. In short she was one of those good women whose men-folk make friends with the devil. ”

“ The nearer we approach the end of our days, the faster our sorrows seem to come upon us. I have had more than my share of them, and they have changed me. I see only one source of comfort left to me in the wide world."
"And that?" she asked, half kneeling at his feet.
"My dear son Richard. No one knows the son he has been to me; the sacrifices he has made. No one save God."
Miss Dallory gave no answer to this. He was lost in deep abstraction, thinking no doubt of his many troubles--for he always was thinking of them--when the person in question entered; Richard North. ”

“ So he stirred restlessly, causing the wicker-work of his chair to utter long creaks, as a vent to his dissatisfaction.
"Would you not like another chair?" asked Hermione, disturbed by the squeaks.
"Thanks—no. This is very comfortable."
Mr. Dalrymple spoke next in quiet tones. "Yes, it is a blessed service," he said. "But the yielding of ourselves is not a matter of one moment's resolving or doing, as some would have us believe. It is a long battle."
"Only there has to be first the yielding of our will, grandfather. We have to give ourselves to Christ ”

“ But our poor Miss Dalley's life has been harshly narrowed down, narrowed, I may say, to Tasso alone. For all their small property was swept away by the war, and she is now obliged to support herself and her mother by dyeing: there is, fortunately, a good deal of dyeing in Far Edgerley, and so she took it up. You must have noticed her hands. But we always pretend not to notice them, because in all other ways she is so lady-like; when she expects to see any one, she always, and most delicately, wears gloves. ”

“ Fitzalan.
"Yes—woman-like, trusting one who was not worthy of her trust. Mr. Dalrymple yielded to her wishes—weakly, I have always thought. Her child is the loser now, though not according to her wish or intention."
"I only wish I had come home sooner," Harvey almost said, but somehow he changed the sentence into— "I wish Hermione had been present. How can one tell her?"
Mr. Fitzalan wondered silently— "Will not Harvey feel bound to carry out his uncle's intentions?" The same thought was in Mr. Selwyn's mind, less hopefully couched. ”

“ All men, provided their youth has been happy, think so. Darley said good-by, and walked on.
Who was this fellow Severance? She called him Lawrence—Lawrence, by Jove! There was something in it—rather old schoolmates, too, they had been, and what might they not be now? It was more pique than disappointment which caused Darley to wish momentarily that he was not scheduled for Dutton. However, he must stand the hazard of the die.
His things were soon packed; he also supplied himself with a box of the cigars Leonard and he used to love in “the days that are no more,” and a copy of “Outing.” ”