Enid

“ The figure glided onward, and its eyes—glittering and baleful—were never once removed from Enid's face. With one supreme effort, the girl sprang from the bed and threw herself in the strange visitor's way. The figure halted and drew back. Enid laid a hand upon its arm. Ah, yes, thank Heaven, she felt the touch of flesh and blood! No weird reflected image of a wandering brain was before her; a woman—only a wicked desperate woman—stood in her way. Enid was not afraid.
[Pg 317] "Florence," she said, "why are you here?" ”

“ Beside them, Enid's merely serviceable legs looked like sticks. The white bows in their hair shared the ensemble effect of each: Enid's perched precisely in the middle, its loops and ends vibrantly and decisively erect; Elaine's drooped a little at one side, its crispness at once confessing and defying evanescence and fragility.
Margaret thrilled with the child's loveliness, but for some subtle reason she smiled chiefly on Enid.
That little lady concluded she must be a person worthy of confidence. ”

“ Enid slipped past him into the bushes and gave a faint click of her lips. Something moved and whined, and two dark objects bounded towards her. She caught them together by their collars and cuffed them soundly. Then she led the way back so as to get on Henson's tracks.
He was walking on ahead of her now, beating time softly to the music of the faintly distant song with his cigar. Enid could distinctly see the sweep of the red circle.
"Hold him, Dan," she whispered. "Watch, Prance; watch, boy."
There was a low growl as the hounds found the scent and dashed forward. ”

“ Enid's father's sole objection to him was the youth of them both; the young lawyer, I elicited, was one year and five months older than Enid.
“But it isn't as if he hadn't seen the world,” said Enid magnificently. “He has been graduated from college a year, and he has been abroad twice—once when he was nine, and then for two months last summer. And he has read everything, and he says he has—he calls it 'exploited' everything, and found that love is the only thing in the world. Oh, Aunt Ettarre,” said Enid with awe, “and then think of his loving me!” ”

“ Yes, he must see to it that Enid went about and saw more of other people. She was too much with her mother, and with her own thoughts. Flowers and foreign missions her garden and the great kingdom of China; there was something unusual and touching about her preoccupations. Something quite charming, too. Women ought to be religious; faith was the natural fragrance of their minds. The more incredible the things they believed, the more lovely was the act of belief. ”

“ Indeed, Enid was twenty-two that Spring, and had been for two years happily married in spite of the fact that Pelleas and I had had no hand in the wooing. To see Enid with her baby in her arms was considerably like watching a wild rose rock a butterfly, and no one can fancy how tenderly we two observed her. I think that few sweet surprises of experience or even of wisdom have so confirmed our joy in life as the sight of our grandniece Enid with her baby. ”

“ The delicate color had flushed Enid's cheeks a little, but she answered simply, "Yes, dear nurse;" and, leaning down, she kissed the old woman's forehead.
The caress moved the Rector strangely. His heart gave an odd bound, the blood began to course more rapidly through his veins. He was a clergyman, and he was in the [Pg 109] presence of a dying woman; but he was a man for all that, and at the moment when Enid's pure lips were pressed to her old nurse's brow, his whole being was stirred by a new emotion, which as yet he did not suspect was known amongst men by the name of love. ”

“ They were close to the wall of the cliff.
"What a funny rock!" said Enid. "I wonder what causes these strange formations. Doesn't that look like an altar? And there is a figure of a man in a long robe. And the professor will tell us that it is all made by the rain."
"Yes," said Joy indifferently. "You know, Enid, I'm tired of this Arizona country. I hate these bare mountains, and I hate the herds of cattle that stare at you and then race madly away. Everything is unfriendly. Yet, I'm almost sure I'll be homesick, like Kit, when I once get away." ”

“ Enid Maitland nodded her head. She closed the locket, laid it on the table and pushed it away from her. So this was the man the woman had loved, who had begged her to go away with him, this handsome Armstrong who had come within an ace of winning her own affection, to whom she was in some measure pledged!
How strangely does fate work out its purposes. Enid had come from the Atlantic seaboard to be the second woman that both these two men loved! ”

“ There was a touch of human emotion in the last words which [Pg 267] seemed to bring him closer to Enid than the earlier sentence could have done. "But I know you have no need of me," the Rector added sorrowfully; "you have so many friends."
"I have not a friend in the world!" the girl broke out; and then she half hid her face with her transparently thin fingers, and tried to conceal the fact that she was weeping.
"Not a friend, Miss Vane?" Mr. Evandale's tone betrayed complete bewilderment.
"Whom would you call my friend?" said Enid, almost passionately. ”

“ His feeling for them had seemed to be the one vital emotion left him. Their littleness, the thought that their individual, mysterious life should have risen, like twin springs, from his and Enid's love had thrilled him with pity and wonder and an aching tenderness which once or twice had rekindled passion only to die almost at once under the stifling commonplaceness of their daily life. ”

“ I shall not grieve—in that way, uncle," said Enid gravely, but with perfect calm. "You mean that Hubert cares for her, and that she loves him too?"
"I don't know what she does," said the General, with a [Pg 312] rather ominous growl. "I only know that there were some entanglement—understanding between them—a flirtation I dare say—young men are not always so careful as they ought to be—and perhaps the girl has taken it seriously."
"Poor girl," said Enid softly—"I am very sorry for her!"
"Sorry? Sorry for Westwood's daughter? Enid, you forget what is due to yourself and to your father! ”

“ It was a shock to her to find the little creature at the park gates of Beechfield Hall.
Enid did not seem to be embarrassed by her aunt's call. She ran up to her at once, dragging the ragged child with her by the hand. Her face was anxious and puzzled.
[Pg 37] "Oh, aunt Leo," she said, "this little girl has nowhere to go to—no home—no anything!"
"Let her hand go, Enid!" said aunt Leo, with some severity. "You have no business to be out here in the road, talking to children whom you know nothing about." ”

“ Evandale made some polite but slightly incoherent rejoinder, to which nobody listened, for the General's attention was at that moment completely monopolised by Enid, who on feeling his arm around her, suddenly hid her white face on his shoulder and burst into tears.
"Oh, uncle," she sobbed, "you are so kind—so good! Forgive me!"
"Forgive you, my dear? There is nothing to forgive!" said the astonished General, in a slightly reproving tone. "Of course I do not like your staying out so late on a winter afternoon, but you need not make such a fuss about it, my child. ”

“ When the steamship was almost due Enid found that she could wait for him to see the baby not one day longer than that on which the boat was to arrive. So she took train from somewhere in Connecticut with that very little child and arrived at our house in a sad state of collapse, a few minutes before her telegram. Enid has no nurse maid. They are very young married people indeed.
The night on which Enid and her baby reached us Pelleas and I had been sitting in the dark of our drawing-room, with the fire almost burned out. ”

“ Enid is a long, spare-figured girl with the lissom walk of a dancer; Tavish and Shirley are tall, clean-shaven men of gentlemanlike appearance. Von Rettenmayer makes for Enid eagerly and is followed, at a more moderate pace, by Heneage, Grimwood, and de Castro, and by Fulkerson bringing Farncombe. ”

“ Enid was meant for him and she had come for him; he would never let her go. She should never know how much he longed for her. She would be slow to feel even a little of what he was feeling; he knew that. It would take a long while. But he would be infinitely patient, infinitely tender of her. It should be he who suffered, not she. ”

“ It will be quite a slight to us all if you go away."
Flossy smiled ironically, but she looked at Enid in what Hubert thought a rather peculiar way. He knew his sister's face very well, and he could not but fancy that there was some apprehension in the glance. Enid sat still, looking at the tablecloth before her. Her face had grown perceptibly paler, but she did not move. A little spot of red suddenly showed itself on each of Mrs. Vane's delicate cheeks.
"Well, Enid, what do you say?" she asked, with less languor of utterance than usual. "Do you wish to suffer a purgatory of discord? ”

“ Flossy took up her fan and began to examine the tips of the feathers.
"There is only one reason," she said slowly, "why a girl ever looks like that. Only one thing turns a girl of seventeen into a drooping, die-away, lackadaisical creature, such as Enid is just now."
"Speak kindly of her, at any rate," said Hubert. "She is a woman like yourself, and there is only one interpretation to be put upon your words."
"Naturally. You, as a novelist, dramatist, and poet, must know it well enough," said his sister calmly. "Well, [Pg 136] remember that you have insisted on my telling you. Enid is in love. ”

“ There was a reason for it, of course. If your parents, who are generally so kind and jolly, suddenly do a thing that you can’t understand and can hardly bear, you may be quite sure they have a good reason for it. The reason in this case was that Aunt Enid was the only person who offered to take charge of the children at a time when all the nice people who usually did it were having influenza. Also she was an old friend of Granny’s. Granny’s taste in friends must have been very odd, Francis decided, or else Aunt Enid must have changed a good deal since she was young. ”

“ Williams says he was illtreating my aunt, but that seems hardly possible even for Reginald."
"It was over a ring that Mrs. Henson had," David explained. "She was running away with it, and Henson was trying to get it back. You see—"
"A ring!" Enid gasped. "Did you happen to see it? Oh, if it is only—. But he would not be so silly as that. A ring is the cause of all the trouble. Did you see it?"
"I not only saw it but I have it in my possession," David replied.
Enid turned up the flaring little lamp with a shaking hand. Quite unstrung, she held out her fingers for the ring. ”

“ Enid informed her. "These are our best dresses, and our white kid slippers. Don't you think they're pretty? Mine tie with ribbons, but hers only button like a baby's."
Elaine looked down grievingly at the offensively infantile slippers, turning her exquisite little foot.
"I'm going to speak a piece for Easter," Enid pursued, "all alone by myself; and she's going to speak one in concert with a class."
"Oh, I hope you will come and speak them for me some time," Margaret invited; "and bring Clara and Isabel."
"Maybe we will," answered Enid. "We must go now. Come on, Elaine." ”

“ Meldreth had made to Enid in her last moments should be made known. Enid was however still reluctant; and Miss Vane was brought in chiefly to give her advice, and thus to settle the question.
"Well," she said, looking keenly from one to the other, as she sat beside Enid's sofa and Mr. Evandale stood before her, "I think I may safely say that it's not the money that either of you cares about."
"No, indeed!" The voices were unanimous.
"Neither money nor lands matter very much to you. But you"—to Evandale—"hate the deceit ”

“ Enid shrank a little, but she did not drop the child's hand.
"But, aunt Leo, she is hungry and——"
"Were you begging of this young lady?" Miss Vane said magisterially, her eyes bent full on the ragged girl's dark face.
But Andrew Westwood's daughter would not speak.
"I'll talk to her," said Hubert, in a low tone. "You take Enid back to the house, aunt Leo, and I'll send the child about her business."
"No, no; you'll miss your train. It is time for you to go. Enid can run back to the house by herself. Go, Enid!"
"Why may I not speak to the little girl too?" said Enid wistfully. ”

“ Claude turned his car and went back along the dim, twilight road with Enid. "I usually like to see Gladys, but when I found her with you this afternoon, I was terribly disappointed for a minute. I'd just been talking with your father, and I wanted to come straight to you. Do you think you could marry me, Enid?"
"I don't believe it would be for the best, Claude." She spoke sadly.
He took her passive hand. "Why not?"
"My mind is full of other plans. Marriage is for most girls, but not for all." ”

“ Wheeler did. He had never looked at Weldon so long before. The light fell full on the young man's pear-shaped head and his thin, rippled hair. What in the world could sensible women like his mother and Enid Royce find to admire in this purring, white-necktied fellow? Enid's dark eyes rested upon him with an expression of profound respect. She both looked at him and spoke to him with more feeling than she ever showed toward Claude.
"You see, Brother Weldon," she said earnestly, "I am not naturally much drawn to people. I find it hard to take the proper interest in the church work at home. ”