Fleda Venn

“ And if she can't get them she doesn't want me. If she can't get them she doesn't want anything at all."
This was categoric; Fleda drank it in. "She takes such an interest in them?"
"So it appears."
"So much that they're all, and that she can let everything else absolutely depend upon them?"
Owen weighed her question as if he felt the responsibility of his answer. But that answer came in a moment, and, as Fleda could see, out of a wealth of memory. "She never wanted them particularly till they seemed to be in danger. Now she has an idea about them; and when she gets hold of an idea—Oh dear me!" ”

“ Fleda Vetch didn't suspect him at first of feeling differently to her, but only of feeling differently to Mona; yet she was not unconscious that this latter difference would have had something to do with his being on the grass beside her. She had read in novels about gentlemen who on the eve of marriage, winding up the past, had surrendered themselves for the occasion to the influence of a former tie; and there was something in Owen's behavior now, something in his very face, that suggested a resemblance to one of those gentlemen. But whom and what, in that case, would Fleda herself resemble? ”

“ It was this that formed the element through which Mona loomed large; Fleda had enough imagination, a fine enough feeling for life, to be impressed with such an image of successful immobility. The massive maiden at Waterbath was successful from the moment she could entertain her resentments as if they had been poor relations who needn't put her to expense. She was a magnificent dead weight; there was something positive and portentous in her quietude. "What game are they all playing?" poor Fleda could only ask; for she had an intimate conviction that Owen was now under the roof of his betrothed. ”

“ But it was not, as she thought, uncle Orrin that was standing by her side, and looking up as she finished speaking Fleda saw with a start that it was Mr. Carleton. There was such a degree of life and pleasantness in his eyes that, in spite of the start, her own quite brightened.
"That is a pleasure one may always command," he said, answering part of her speech.
"Ay, provided one has one's mind always under command," said Fleda. "It is possible to sit down to a feast with a want of appetite." ”

“ Why not?"
"Because I don't like it, sir. I don't like to see dogs in laps."
"But all the ladies in the land do it, you little Saxon! it is universally considered a mark of distinction."
"I can't help what all the ladies in the land do," said Fleda. "That won't alter my liking, and I don't think a lady's lap is a place for a dog."
"I wish you were my daughter!" said the old doctor, shaking his head at her with a comic fierce expression of countenance, which Fleda perfectly understood and laughed at accordingly. ”

“ I am sure it pains uncle Rolf more than you think. Say you will not,--for your mother's sake!"
"I will not, Fleda--for your sake. I would not give you any more trouble to bear. Promise me; that you will be more careful of yourself in future."
"O there is no danger about me," said Fleda with a faint smile and taking up her work again.
"Who are you making shirts for?" said Charlton after a pause.
"Hugh."
"You do everything for Hugh, don't you?"
"Little enough. Not half so much as he does for me."
"Is he up at the mill to-day?"
"He is always there," said Fleda sighing. ”

“ Carleton walked up and down the vacant space. Once he caught an anxious glance from Fleda, and came immediately to her side.
"You need not be troubled about me," be said with a most genial smile;--"I am not suffering--never was further from it in my life."
Fleda could neither answer nor look.
"There are not many hours of the night to wear out," he said. "Can't you follow your neighbour's example?" ”

“ No wonder if the energies which owed much of their strength to love's nerving, should at last give out, and Fleda's evening be passed in wearied slumbers. No wonder if many a day was given up to the forced quietude of a headache, the more grievous to Fleda because she knew that her aunt and Hugh always found the day dark that was not lightened by her sunbeam. How brightly it shone out the moment the cloud of pain was removed, winning the shadow from their faces and a smile to their lips, though solitude always saw her own settle into a gravity as fixed as it was soft. ”

“ Fleda spoke from the tiny hall, where she had taken refuge between the old barometer and the old mackintosh. "There are things too utterly for yourselves alone. How can I tell? What do I know? Good-bye, good-bye! If she doesn't let you off, it will be because she is attached to you."
"She's not, she's not: there's nothing in it! Doesn't a fellow know?—except with you!" Owen ruefully added. With this he came out of the room, lowering his voice to secret supplication, pleading with her really to meet him on the ground of the negation of Mona. ”

“ Fleda hesitated a moment; after which she exclaimed with a certain hard pride: "He's enough in love with me for anything!"
"For anything apparently except to act like a man and impose his reason and his will on your incredible folly. For anything except to put an end, as any man worthy of the name would have put it, to your systematic, to your idiotic perversity. What are you, after all, my dear, I should like to know, that a gentleman who offers you what Owen offers should have to meet such wonderful exactions, to take such extraordinary precautions about your sweet little scruples?" ”

“ Don't you know there are some people you can't do anything with but just what they please? There wasn't the least thing like stiffness--you never saw anybody less stiff,--but I never dreamed of asking him questions except when he was out of sight. Why, do you know him?" she said suddenly.
"When you tell me who he was I'll tell you," said Fleda smiling. ”

“ But the degree of Fleda's wonderment, pleasure, and gratitude, made her reception of them, outwardly at least, this time rather grave.
"You may throw the others away now, Miss Fleda," said the housekeeper, smiling.
"Indeed, I shall not!"
"The violets, I suppose, is all gone," Mrs. Pritchard went on; "but I never did see such a bunch of roses as that since I lived anywhere. They have made a rose of you, Miss Fleda."
"How beautiful!" was Fleda's answer.
"Somebody he didn't say who desired to know particularly how Miss Ringgan was to-day."
"Somebody is very kind!" ”

“ Mrs. Gereth watched Fleda and considered. "You haven't any idea if they are waiting for the things?"
"How should I have? I'm not in their counsels."
"I dare say they are—or that Mona is." Mrs. Gereth reflected again; she had a bright idea. "If I don't give in I'll be hanged if she'll not break off."
"She'll never, never break off," said Fleda. ”

“ Such a challenge Fleda was obliged in some manner to take up. "You may be settling Mona," she returned with a smile, "but I can hardly regard it as sufficient evidence that you're settling Mona's lover."
"Why not, with such a studied omission on his part to gloss over in any manner the painful tension existing between them—the painful tension that, under Providence, I've been the means of bringing about? He gives you by his silence clear notice that his marriage is practically off." ”

“ Rossitur," said Fleda pleasantly.--"Look at these roses, and don't ask me for papers!"
He did look a minute at the dish of flowers she was arranging for the breakfast table, and at the rival freshness and sweetness of the face that hung over them.
"You don't mean to say you live without a paper?"
"Look at these roses, and don't ask me for papers!"
"Well, it's astonishing how many things people can live without," said Fleda rather dreamily, intent upon settling an uneasy rose that would topple over.
"I wish you'd answer me really," said Charlton. "Don't you take a paper here?" ”

“ Pritchard," said Fleda, smiling up at her.
"I wish you had somebody to take care of you, Miss Fleda, that wouldn't let you tire yourself. It's a sin to throw your strength away so--and you don't care for looks nor nothing else when it's for other people. ”

“ One person's eyes, however little seemingly observant of her, read sufficiently well the unusual shaded air of her brow and her smile. But a sudden errand of business called him abroad immediately after breakfast.
The ladies seized the opportunity to carry Fleda up and introduce her to her dressing-room and take account of Lady Peterborough's commission, and ladies and ladies' maids soon formed a busy committee of dress and decorations. It did not enliven Fleda, it wearied her, though she forgave them the annoyance in gratitude for the pleasure they took in looking at her. ”

“ Carleton that took such care of you at Montepoole?"
"Certainly I do!--very well."
"We saw them last winter--we were down at their country-place in---- shire. They have a magnificent place there--everything you can think of to make life pleasant. We spent a week with them. My dear Fleda!--I wish I could shew you that place! you never saw anything like it."
Fleda eat her pie.
"We have nothing like it in this country--of course--cannot have. One of those superb English country-seats is beyond even the imagination of an American."
"Nature has been as kind to us, hasn't she?" said Fleda. ”

“ Renney," said Fleda smiling. "I believe I am not very strong yet."
The housekeeper and Hannah both looked at her with strangely touched faces, and again begged her to try the refreshment of tea. But Fleda would not go down, so they served her up there with great zeal and tenderness. And then she waited patiently and watched the people in the cabin, as they sat gossiping in groups or stupefying in solitude; and thought how miserable a thing is existence where religion and refinement have not taught the mind to live in somewhat beyond and above its every-day concern. ”

“ Fleda continued.
"Oh yes, a lot of things. But you wouldn't know the place, all the same." He looked about the room with his discoloured, swindled face, which deepened Fleda's compassion for him, conjuring away any smile at so candid an image of the dupe. "You'd know this one soon enough, wouldn't you? These are just the things she ought to have left. Is the whole house full of them?"
"The whole house," said Fleda uncompromisingly. She thought of her lovely room.
"I never knew how much I cared for them. They're awfully valuable, aren't they?" Owen's manner mystified her ”

“ Fleda's face had grown dark with her wonder, but her friend's empty hands offered no balm to the pain in it. "It was that if it was anything. Nothing else meets the misery of it. Then there was quick work. Before he could turn round he was married."
Fleda, as if she had been holding her breath, gave the sigh of a listening child. "At that place you spoke of in town?"
"At the Registrar's, like a pair of low atheists."
The girl hesitated. "What do people say of that? I mean the 'world.'"
"Nothing, because nobody knows. They're to be married on the 17th, at Waterbath church. ”

“ Fleda asked him if he could not get another furlough to go with her home, but he declared he was just spending one which was near out; and he could not hope for a third in some time; he must be back at his post by the day after to-morrow.
"When do you want to go, coz?"
"I would to-morrow, if I had anybody to go with me," said Fleda sighing.
"No you wouldn't," said Constance,--"you are well enough to go out now, and you forget we are all to make Mrs. Thorn happy to-morrow night."
"I am not," said Fleda.
"Not? you can't help yourself; you must; you said you would." ”

“ Fleda's nervous system was of the finest too, but, in short, she was as like a bird as possible. Perfect health, which yet a slight thing was enough to shake to the foundation;--joyous spirits, which a look could quell;--happy energies, which a harsh hand might easily crush for ever. Well for little Fleda that so tender a plant was permitted to unfold in so nicely tempered an atmosphere. A cold wind would soon have killed it. Besides all this there were charming studies to be gone through every day with Hugh; some for aunt Lucy to hear, some for masters and mistresses. ”

“ I wasn't such a donkey."
"So as not to aggravate Mona?" Fleda suggested.
"So as not to aggravate Mona, naturally. We've had a narrow course to steer, but thank God we're at last in the open!"
"What do you call the open, Mrs. Gereth?" Fleda demanded. Then as that lady faltered: "Do you know where Mr. Owen is to-day?"
Mrs. Gereth stared. "Do you mean he's at Waterbath? Well, that's your own affair. I can bear it if you can."
"Wherever he is I can bear it," Fleda said. "But I haven't the least idea where he is."
"Then you ought to be ashamed of yourself!" Mrs. ”

“ Fleda opened her eyes. "She went down to Ricks?"
"The day after she had found Owen at your feet. She knows everything."
Fleda shook her head sadly; she was more startled than she cared to show. This odd journey of Mrs. Brigstock's, which, with a simplicity equal for once to Owen's, she had not divined, now struck her as having produced the hush of the last ten days. "There are things she doesn't know!" she presently exclaimed.
"She knows he would do anything to marry you." ”

“ Thorn and Rossitur had kept up indefatigably the game of teasing Fleda about her "English admirer," as they sometime styled him. Poor Fleda grew more and more sore on the subject. She thought it was very strange that two grown men could not find enough to do to amuse themselves without making sport of the comfort of a little child. ”