Holly Cross

“ He seems to aim more at what he says than how he says it; and if you listen, you will find food for thought in every phrase. As a writer he is forcible and argumentative, but never dull. In person, Mr. Holly is of the ordinary size, has a bright eye, agreeable countenance, form erect, voice clear and mellow. He uses good language, is precise in his manners, and wears the air of a gentleman. Infatuated with the idea of a home in Hayti, he raised a colony and sailed for Port au Prince in the spring of 1861. ”

“ There is no such thing as death, Holly, only a change, and, as you may perhaps learn in time to come, I believe that even that change could under certain circumstances be indefinitely postponed," and again he broke into one of his dreadful fits of coughing.
"There," he said, "I must go, you have the chest, and my will will be found among my papers, under the authority of which the child will be handed over to you. You will be well paid, Holly, and I know that you are honest, but if you betray my trust, by Heaven, I will haunt you." ”

“ Her eyes were on the green knoll where the oaks threw deep shadow over the red-walled enclosure, and her thoughts wandered like the blue-jay that flitted restlessly through garden and grove. Life was a turbid stream, these days, filled with perplexing swirls—a stream that rippled with laughter in the sunlight, and sighed in its shadowed depths, and all the while flowed swiftly, breathlessly on toward—what?
The sound of a horse’s hoofs on the road aroused Holly from her dreams. She lifted her head and listened. The hoof-beats slackened at the gate, and then drew nearer up the curving drive. ”

“ Holly pouted.
“Then which do you choose?” she asked, aggrievedly.
“To be your slave, my dear young lady; I fancy that rôle would be more becoming to middle-age and, at all events, far less hazardous.”
“But if I command you to admire me you’ll have to, you see; slaves must obey.”
“I haven’t waited for the command,” replied Winthrop.
“You blow hot and cold, sir. First you refuse to be my admirer and then you declare that you do admire me. What am I to believe?”
“That my heart and brain are at war, Miss Holly. My heart says: ‘Down on your knees!’ but my brain says: ‘Don’t you do it, my boy ”

“ Listen, Holly. Thou art a good and honest man, and I fain would spare thee; but, oh! it is so hard for woman to be merciful. I have said I am not for thee, therefore let thy thoughts pass by me like an idle wind, and the dust of thy imagination sink again into the depths—well, of despair, if thou wilt. Thou dost not know me, Holly. Hadst thou seen me but ten hours past when my passion seized me, thou hadst shrunk from me in fear and trembling. I am of many moods, and, like the water in that vessel, I reflect many things; but they pass, my Holly; they pass, and are forgotten. ”

“ Well, thou hast a prickly and yet a tree-like look. Strong art thou, and ugly, but if my wisdom be not at fault, honest at the core, and a staff to lean on. Also one who thinks. But stay, oh Holly, stand not there, enter with me and be seated by me. I would not see thee crawl before me like those slaves. I am aweary of their worship and their terror; sometimes when they vex me I could blast them for very sport, and to see the rest turn white, even to the heart.” And she held the curtain aside with her ivory hand to let me pass in. ”

“ I am going right back.”
“Nonsense, Julian, dinner is coming on the table now,” said Holly.
“It’s much too warm to ride in the middle of the day,” said Miss India, decisively. “Tell Phœbe to lay another place, Holly.” Julian hesitated and shot a questioning glance at Winthrop.
“You are quite right, Miss India,” said Winthrop. “This is no time to do twelve miles on horseback. You must command Mr. Wayne to remain. No one, I am sure, has ever dared disregard a command of yours.”
“I’ll tell Phœbe and call Uncle Ran,” said Holly. But at the door she turned and looked across the garden. ”

“ Uncle Major was there, as were two of Holly’s girl friends, and the little party of six proved most congenial. Holly was in the highest spirits; everyone she knew had [195] been so kind to her. Aunt India had given her dimity for a new dress and a pair of the gauziest white silk stockings that ever crackled against the ear. The dimity was white sprinkled with little Dresden flowers of deep pink. Holly and Rosa and Edith had spent fully an hour before dinner in enthusiastic planning and the fate of the white dimity was settled. ”

“ Holly began an eager conversation with Julian and the talk became general, the Major holding forth on the subject of Cuban affairs, which were compelling a good deal of attention in that winter of 1897–8. After dinner they went out to the porch, but not before the Major had, unnoticed, stationed himself at the dining-room door with a sprig of mistletoe in his hand. [217] Holly and Julian reached the door together and with a portentous wink at Julian the Major held the little bunch of leaves and berries over Holly’s head. Winthrop, the last to leave the room, saw what followed. ”

“ Every time I see you I find you’ve grown more radiant and lovely than before! ’Pears to me, my dear, you ought to have some pity for us poor men. Gad, if I was twenty years younger I’d be down on my knees this instant!”
Holly laughed softly and then drew her face into an expression of dejection.
“That’s always the way,” she sighed. [25] “All the real nice men are either married or think they’re too old to marry. I reckon I’ll just die an old maid, Uncle Major.” ”

“ Would he be upsetting himself over every woman in like case? No! he would not. The candour of this conclusion discomfited him; and, finding that Holly had gone up to bed, he sought his own room. But he could not sleep, and sat for a long time at his window, huddled in an overcoat, watching the moonlight on the roofs.
Next door Holly too was awake, thinking of the lashes above and below Val’s eyes, especially below; and of what she could do to make Jolly like him better. The scent of the gardenia was strong in her little bedroom, and pleasant to her. ”

“ I always pity folks that have to live at hotels, and I do wish the Major would go to Mrs. Burson’s for his meals.”
“But the Bursons live mighty poorly, Auntie.”
“Because they have to, my child. If the Major went there Mrs. Burson could spend more on her table. She has one of the best cooks in the town.” Holly made no reply and presently Miss India went on: “Have you noticed,” she asked, “how Mr. Winthrop has improved since he came here, Holly?” ”

“ Hang it all, a man could fall in love with an Alaskan totem-pole here if he was in company with it for half an hour! There were three very excellent reasons why he mustn’t let himself fall in love with Holly Wayne, and it was plainly his duty to keep a watch on himself. With that thought in mind he spent more time away from Waynewood than theretofore, throwing himself on the companionship of the Major, who was always delighted to have him drop in at his office or at the Palmetto House, where he lived; or riding out to Sunnyside to spend the day with Colonel Byers. ”

“ Holly’s eighteenth birthday was but a fortnight distant when the quiet stream of her life, which since her father’s death six years before had flowed placidly, with but few events to ripple its tranquil surface, was suddenly disturbed....
To the child of twelve years death, because of its unfamiliarity and mystery, is peculiarly terrible. At that age one has become too wise to find comfort in the vague and beautiful explanations of tearfully-smiling relatives—explanations in which Heaven is pictured as a material region just out of sight beyond the zenith ”

“ Although she could have no knowledge of it, as yet, Fate was already poising the stone which, once dropped into that stream, was destined to cause disquieting ripples, perplexing eddies, distracting swirls and, in the end, the formation of a new channel. And even now the messenger of Fate was limping along with the aid of his stout cane, coming nearer and nearer down the road from the village under the shade of the water-oaks, a limp and a tap for every beat of Holly’s unsuspecting heart. ”

“ Rosa had just the pattern for it and Holly was to drive out to Bellair in a day or so and get it. [196] The Major had brought a blue plush case lined with maroon satin and holding three pairs of scissors, a bodkin, and two ribbon-runners.
“I don’t know what those flat gimcracks are for, Holly,” he said, as she kissed him, “but ‘Ham’ he said he reckoned you’d know what to do with them. I told him, ‘Ham, you’re a married man and I’m a bachelor, and don’t you go and impose on my ignorance. ”

“ Winthrop strove to turn his head toward her, gave up the effort and smiled strainedly at the marble Cupid, which had begun an erratic dance amongst the box and roses.
“Oh, no,” he replied in a whisper. “I’m not—an invalid—at all.”
[79]
Then he became suddenly very white and his head fell back over the side of the chair. Holly gave one look and, turning, flew like the wind up the broad stairway.
“Auntie!” she called. “Aunt India! Come quickly! He’s fainted!”
“Fainted? Who has fainted?” asked Miss India, from her doorway. “What are you saying, child?” ”

“ If you’ll just stick to that you’ll come out all right. There’s nothing like a little, hard, plain common sense to knock the wind out of sentiment. Common sense, my boy, common sense!”
He joined the others on the porch and conducted a very creditable flirtation with Miss Edith until visitors began to arrive, and the big bowl of eggnog was set in the middle of the dining-room table and banked with holly. After dark they went into town and watched the fireworks on the green surrounding the school-house. Holly walked ahead with Julian, and Winthrop thought he had never seen her in better spirits. ”

“ Holly’s smooth cheeks reddened a little.
“A girl ought to marry a man much older than herself,” she said, decisively.
“Oh! Then Julian won’t do?”
“I haven’t decided,” Holly laughed. “Maybe. He’s nice. I wonder if you’ll like him. Will you try to, please? He—he’s awfully down on Northerners, though.”
“That’s bad,” said Winthrop, seriously. “Perhaps he won’t approve of me. Do you think I’d better run away over Sunday? I might go out to visit Colonel Byers; he’s asked me.”
“Silly!” said Holly. “He won’t eat you!” ”

“ Very well, Auntie dear, I shan’t hate him, then; at least, not so much.”
“I trust you will not hate him at all,” responded Miss India, with a smile. “Being an invalid, as he is, we must——”
“Shucks!” exclaimed Holly. “I dare say he’s just making believe so we won’t put poison in his coffee!”
In the middle of the afternoon, what time Miss India composed herself to slumber and silence reigned over Waynewood, Holly found a book and sought the fig-tree. ”

“ I can promise thee naught save such love as woman never gave to man, love that perchance—I know not—must yet remain unsatisfied upon the earth.”
Then she turned to me and said:
“Oh! thou, Holly, thou true friend, thou guardian from of old, thou, next to him most beloved by me, to thy clear and innocent spirit perchance wisdom may be given that is denied to us, the little children whom thine arms protect. Counsel thou him, my Holly, with the counsel that is given thee, and I will obey thy words and his, and, whatever befalls, will bless thee from my soul. ”

“ Did she exist? Had she ever come at all? Or was she but the emanation of all the beauty he had loved and must leave so soon? The violet-grey spirit with the dark eyes and the crown of amber hair, who walks the dawn and the moonlight, and at blue-bell time? What was she, who was she, did she exist? He rose and stood a moment clutching the window-sill, to give him a sense of reality again; then began tiptoeing towards the door. He stopped at the foot of the bed; and Holly, as if conscious of his eyes fixed on her, stirred, sighed, and curled up closer in defence. ”

“ She would go carefully to work and soon secure a band of followers, who would increase by-and-by, becoming extremely obstreperous and doing all sorts of naughty things, for Holly had no intention when at school to be good or to learn much. She went solely and entirely for her own happiness, because she preferred the girls with the blue, gray, and nondescript eyes to the kitchen cat, Jean, and to the great loneliness which had descended on The Garden. ”

“ God sometimes fashions a perfect body, and when He does can any praise be too extravagant?
For the rest, Holly Wayne at eighteen—or, to be exact, a fortnight before—was perhaps as contradictory as most girls of her age. Warm-hearted and tender, she could be tyrannical if she chose; dignified at times, there were moments when she became a breath-taking madcap of a girl,—moments of which Aunt India strongly but patiently disapproved ”

“ Her heart leaped.
“Dear,” she whispered, “it’s Holly. She wants you. You won’t die, will you? When you know that I want you, you won’t leave me, will you? What would I do without you, dear? I’ve so long to live!”
Footsteps hurried across the porch and down the steps. Very gently Holly yielded her burden to Uncle Ran, and Winthrop was carried into the house, where Aunt India, [261] in a pink flowered wrapper, awaited them at the head of the stairs. They bore Winthrop into his room and laid him, still unconscious, on his bed. Holly’s gaze clung to the white face. ”