Lady Hilda

“ Carl and Mrs. Courtney came to take tea at “My Lady’s Manor” Hilda should be invited, and she always accepted the invitation. Thus in time she looked upon the villa as a second home, as when a child in the cottage of her Aunt Ashley she passed so much time there with Anna Ashburton.
Happy summers passed, and winters equally pleasant, and Hilda was growing into healthy, symmetrical and beautiful young womanhood, the cultivation of her fine mind keeping pace with her growth. ”

“ With a sick man's impatience, he was troubled by the clumsiness of the hired nurse, and contrasted it with Hilda's instant readiness, and gentle touch, and soft voice of love.
At last, one day when Hilda was giving him some medicine, the vial dropped from her hands, and she sank down senseless by his bedside. She was carried away, and it was long before she came to herself.
"You must be careful of your lady, my lord," said the doctor, after he had seen her. "She has worn herself out for you, and will die some day by your bedside. Never have I seen such tenderness, and such fond devotion. ”

“ I am a Hindu in his eyes. Can contempt ever change into love? If such a miracle could take place, I should never believe in it. Those bitter words in that letter would always rankle in my heart."
"That is true," said Hilda, sorrowfully. "Then we will put that supposition from us. But, allowing you never gain your husband's love, remember how much there is left you. His position, his rank, are yours by right--you are Lady Chetwynde, and the mistress of Chetwynde Castle. You can fill the place with guests, among whom you will be queen. ”

“ It was the old, old sophistication, so perfect in its concentration behind the kol-brushed eyes and the brown breasts, the igniting, flickering, raging of an instinct upon the stage. Alicia, when it was over, said to Mrs. Yardley, "How the modern woman goes off upon side issues?" to which that lady nodded a rather suspicious assent.
Long before Hilda had begun to act for Arnold, to play to his special consciousness, he was fastened to his chair, held down, so to speak, by a whirlpool of conflicting impulses. ”

“ Either, she goes back from Bombay by the return steamer; or else—you and Miss Wade must name your own terms to accompany us on our tour, in case of emergencies." He glanced wistfully at Hilda. "DO you think you can help us?"
Hilda made no hypocritical pretence of hanging back. Her nature was transparent. "If you wish it, yes," she answered, shaking hands upon the bargain. "I only want to go about and see India; I can see it quite as well with Lady Meadowcroft as without her—and even better. It is unpleasant for a woman to travel unattached. I require a chaperon, and am glad to find one. ”

“ So she did the next best thing—sat as far apart as she could from the common herd: meaning all the rest of us. If you can't mingle at once with the Best People, you can at least assert your exclusiveness negatively, by declining to associate with the mere multitude."
"Now, Hilda, that is the first time I have ever known you to show any feminine ill-nature!" ”

“ In other words, she sat as far away from everybody present as the necessarily restricted area of the quarter-deck permitted.
Hilda glanced at me and smiled. I snatched a quick look at the lady again. She was dressed with an amount of care and a smartness of detail that seemed somewhat uncalled for on the Indian Ocean. A cruise on a P. and O. steamer is not a garden party. Her chair was most luxurious, and had her name painted on it, back and front, in very large letters, with undue obtrusiveness. I read it from where I sat, "Lady Meadowcroft." ”

“ You see, in the first place, she is extremely 'exclusive'; she prides herself on her 'exclusiveness': it, and her shoddy title, are probably all she has to pride herself upon, and she works them both hard. She is a sham great lady."
As Hilda spoke, Lady Meadowcroft raised a feebly querulous voice. "Steward! this won't do! I can smell the engine here. Move my chair. I must go on further."
"If you go on further that way, my lady," the steward answered, good-humouredly, but with a man-servant's deference for any sort of title, "you'll smell the galley, where they're cooking the dinner. ”

“ Hilda answered, in her quiet voice. "One must find out first one's patient's temperament. You are nervous, I can see." She laid one hand on her new friend's arm. "You need to be kept amused and engaged when you are ill; what you require most is—insight—and sympathy."
The little fist doubled up again; the vacant face grew positively sweet. "That's just it! You have hit it! How clever you are! I want all that. I suppose, Miss Wade, YOU never go out for private nursing?"
"Never," Hilda answered. "You see, Lady Meadowcroft, I don't nurse for a livelihood. I have means of my own ”

“ Duff protested.
"But then you've invited Lady Dolly. After winning six thousand there will be no holding Lady Dolly. She'll be capable of cat-calls! How I should love," Alicia went on, "to have Hilda meet her. She would be a mine to Hilda."
"For pity's sake," cried her brother, "stop asking Hilda and people who are a mine to Hilda! It's too perceptible, the way she digs in them."
"You dear old thing, you're quite clever to-night! What difference does it make? They never know—they never dream! I wish I could dig." Alicia looked pensively at the olive between her finger and thumb. ”

“ He accompanied her to the Baltimore depot as soon as they reached Philadelphia, and saw her on her way. Mr. Merryman’s carriage met her at Dorton Station and conveyed her to the cottage of Jerusha Flint. And thus, without a moment’s delay which could be avoided, Hilda stood again in one of the homes of her childhood.
Diana Strong was in attendance upon the invalid and welcomed Hilda warmly.
“How much you have grown!” she said softly. “I never would have thought that a person could improve so much in less than two years; you are really an elegant young lady.” ”

“ Thereafter twice a day they called upon him, and each time Hilda carried snowy linen, hoping to win the grandmother. But the old lady was firm, and "Pervyse" was to thrive, looking all the redder, inside blue calico. The mother was a good mother, sweet and constant. Very slowly, the nurses won her confidence and the grandmother's respect.
"Do come away," urged Hilda. "Let me take you all back to La Panne, where [197] it is safer. Give 'Pervyse' his chance. It is senseless to live here in this shed under shell fire. Some day, the guns will get you, and then it will be too late." ”

“ Cumberledge, how can you?"
"You are not unprotected," I answered, soothing her. "You have Hilda with you. She is worth ten men. And besides, our Nepaulese are fairly trustworthy."
Hilda bore me out in my resolve. She was too much of a nurse, and had imbibed too much of the true medical sentiment, to let me desert a man in peril of his life in a tropical jungle. So, in spite of Lady Meadowcroft, I was soon winding my way up a steep mountain track, overgrown with creeping Indian weeds, on my road to the still problematical village graced by the residence of the retired gentleman. ”

“ Hilda answered, turning once more to her book. Lady Meadowcroft looked annoyed. It would never have occurred to her that within a few weeks she was to owe her life to that very abstruse work, and what Hilda had read in it.
That afternoon, as we watched the flying fish from the ship's side, Hilda said to me abruptly, “My chaperon is an extremely nervous woman.”
“Nervous about what?”
“About disease, chiefly. She has the temperament that dreads infection—and therefore catches it.” ”

“ Lady Meadowcroft cried, clinging tight to Hilda. “Miss Wade, this is dreadful! Where on earth have you brought us to?”
“Oh, that's all right,” Hilda answered, trying to soothe her, though she herself began to look a trifle anxious. “That's only Ram Das's graphic way of putting things.”
We sat down on a bank of trailing club-moss by the side of the rough track, for it was nothing more, and let our guide go on to negotiate with the Lamas. “Well, to-night, anyhow,” I exclaimed, looking up, “we shall sleep on our own mattresses with a roof over our heads. These monks will find us quarters. ”

“ She will be a hindrance, not a help. One way or another we must manage to get rid of her.”
“How can we?” I asked. “We can't turn her loose upon the mountain roads with a Nepaulese escort. She isn't fit for it. She would be frantic with terror.”
“I've thought of that, and I see only one thing possible. I must go on with her myself as fast as we can push to Sir Ivor's place, and then return to help you nurse the Professor.”
I saw she was right. It was the sole plan open to us. And I had no fear of letting Hilda go off alone with Lady Meadowcroft and the bearers. ”

“ I never sees none layin’ around, and I burns all he fotches in.”
“But he is so funny, Chloe, and we all love him so!”
“I’m not gwine to say nothin’ agin him, honey, and haven’t said nothin’, even when he tore up my best turban that Mis’ Emma done give me. Mrs. Flynn feeds him. She puts a piece of oilcloth on the floor by the table and gives the terrier scraps while she and Mr. Sandy is eatin’.”
One afternoon Mrs. Courtney, Mrs. Merryman and Hilda went to take tea at “My Lady’s Manor,” a charming walk across the fields that lovely day, and Hilda was the happiest of the happy. ”

“ I am afraid an earnest girl would be influenced by your opinion of me, and doubt my sincerity should I offer my hand and heart.”
“The idea of a boy making an offer of his hand and heart!” laughed Mrs. Warfield.
“Twenty-one next fall, just in time to cast my first vote! Lots of fellows are settled in life at that age,” and he gayly left the room in search of Hilda.
He did not follow the straight course, but instead took a circuitous path to the arbor, where sat Hilda upon a rustic chair, the table before her covered with flowers, and all framed in by the vine-covered arch. ”

“ Aunt Sarah and I drive out as often as I wish to go.”
“Then you only agree because you sacrifice nothing. Hilda, why are you so cold, so indifferent to me? You keep me always anxious. Promise me—” taking her reluctant hand in his, “promise to be my wife!”
“Oh, Fred, what is the use of promising? You will change your mind as soon as you see a new face.”
“Promise! I will not let go your hand until you do!”
“The tea-bell is about to ring. I heard Angie take it from the sideboard.”
“Then promise!”
“I will,” the hand was pressed, then released, and Hilda gathered up the bouquets. ”

“ Hilda was willing for this; she pushed a chair to the bedside, and, still clasping the doll in one arm, crept in.
The setting sun glowed ruddily through the western window, and the ticking of the clock upon the mantel, and the purring of the kitten before the smouldering wood fire upon the hearth were the only sounds which broke the stillness of the pleasant room.
“Your father named you Hilda for your sweet, young mother,” said Mrs. Ashley, taking the child’s hand in hers. “He loved his little daughter so tenderly that he gave her her mother’s name. ”

“ Warfield for years, and the farmhouse was a real home to me, and she was always good and kind to me.”
“Yes, and aunt said she could always count upon you, and is quite sure you will come and help.”
“I wish she could always count so surely upon that wife Paul is getting. I am fearful of it, Miss Hilda. Lura De Cormis has a temper, and what is more, she doesn’t try to curb it.”
“She is an only child,” remarked Hilda, “and her mother died while she was very young and I suppose her father indulged her too much.” ”

“ You are only acting this way to keep me from going out again.”
“I did see something!” screamed Hilda, stamping her foot in her excitement; “they were two black fingers.”
“Two black fingers!” echoed Miss Flint, derisively; “where are they now? They must have been alive if they moved.”
“They did move; I saw them come out and go back!”
“You little vixen!” cried Jerusha, grasping her; “if you don’t hush I will—”
A voice at the door silenced her and caused Hilda to cower in her chair.
“I was coming from Dorton,” said Perry, “and heard somebody crying, so stopped to see what was up.” ”

“ Every word must be guarded, every action fettered. We must eat, drink, sleep, walk and talk all according to a prescribed fashion; must bow to fashion, to custom. We may not even welcome a child to our arms when we desire it, unless we have first allowed shackles to be placed upon our freedom; unless we have first bartered our womanhood for motherhood—often turning what should be a priceless boon to a most bitter curse.”
Hilda’s eyes were sparkling with brilliant flashes, but the eyes of Cora, who with Alice had drawn near, were downcast, and on the dark lashes clung two pearly drops. ”

“ She was living for the moment which should exhale itself somewhere about midnight, after the lights had gone out on her last appearance, living for it as a Carmelite might live for the climax of her veil and her vows if it were conceivable that beyond the cell and the grating she saw the movement and the colour and the passion of a wider life. All Hilda's splendid vitality went into her intention, of which she was altogether mistress, riding it and reining it in a straight course through the encumbered hours. ”