Mina

“ I have not only a noble art and a good daughter; I have also two brave pupils, two true friends. God be thanked, he hath made me a happy man!"
Happy, O poor Sebald! Ay, if thou hadst no daughter. Alas! why does Mina gaze with such simple admiration upon the noble countenance and gilt spurs of the knight? Why does she hang enchanted upon the sweet accents of his voice?
As long as he came regularly to the studio, Mina was smiling and happy; but one day he came not, and on the next she received a letter. ”

“ Then they fell upon each other's necks and cried again, and the color returned to their cheeks as if a sunbeam had kissed them, and they clung to each other as if they were once more growing on the same stalk. "Mina, I will let you have him. You must be happy," said Lina. "No, Lina," said Mina, "he likes you most, and you are much better than I am." "No, Mina. I've quite made up my mind. Uncle Kurz is coming this afternoon, and I'll ask father and mother to let me go home with him, for I couldn't remain here and see it all just yet." ”

“ Mina went with us on almost every occasion. She was a strong and wiry little Highland maiden, as well as beautiful. I must say that she could fish as well as either Captain Reeves or I, and had a neat little gun with which she could bring down her bird on sight.
The birds were now getting wild and scarce, however, but the scenery and the delightful fresh air were worth a king’s ransom. I felt getting stronger every day, and I was now sun-browned as to knees and face. And only healthy men do tan. ”

“ The personal qualities of Mina were well calculated to sustain the fame that had preceded him. There was a combined dash and dignity about him that commanded admiration as well as respect; the stamp of a born leader, exacting an involuntary deference, yet permeated with a generosity and frankness that inspired confidence and love. In manners and accomplishments a gentleman, he possessed also every sterling trait of the soldier. While foremost in a spirited charge, he remained calm throughout the danger, ready to seize the opportunity and direct his officers. ”

“ Mina looked from one to the other.
"Do you mean there's anything possible?" she asked.
"My dear, you're a very good friend."
"I'm not very happy. I don't know what in the world Cecily will do. And yet——" Mina struggled with her rival impulses of kindness and curiosity. "It's all awfully interesting," she concluded, breaking into a smile she could not resist.
"That's the only excuse for all of us, I suppose," sighed Lady Evenswood.
"Not that I like the boy particularly," added Southend.
"Is there anything?" asked Mina. The appeal was to the lady, not to Southend. ”

“ Still there was a feeling in the country so decidedly in favour of the Independent cause,—a feeling so strong, so universal, (as was proved four years later,) that had Mina succeeded in awakening it, his success would have been almost certain; but he struck the wrong chord. He was a Spaniard, and, very naturally, did not forget the land of his birth, nor wish to deprive it of the most precious jewel in its Crown. ”

“ Mina struck at her. Kelpie ducked automatically, and Bogle chuckled. He would also have chuckled had the blow landed.
“You’ll be persuading them, just,” commanded Mina. “Play upon their sympathy. Let them be making you a maidservant if they will—and mind that you be a good one. ’Tis a spy you’ll be, to watch and listen, for the lads are fresh from England and knowing about affairs. Be learning how they feel about the King and Mac Cailein Mor and the Lord Graham of Montrose. And keep them feeling kindly toward you, for we may use them one day.” ”

“ At length, a few partial showers afforded some relief, and Mina seeing the spirits of his men revive, made an attempt on the entrenchments of the enemy, on the night of the 8th of August, in which he was unsuccessful. His good star seemed to have deserted him: eleven of the little band of foreigners, to whom he was indebted for his first successes, fell upon this occasion: some died upon the spot, and others were only wounded. The fate of the last was, perhaps, the most melancholy ”

“ Mina invited him in; there was an appositeness in his coming which appealed to her, and she watched Neeld with covert eagerness.
Harry looked round the room, then vaulted over the sill.
"My uncle's playing golf with Mr Iver," remarked Mina. "Tea?"
"No; too sick-roomy. I'm for nothing but strong drink now—and I've had some." He came to the middle of the room and stood between them, flinging his hat on the table where Mr Cholderton's Journal had so lately lain. "My mother's an extraordinary woman," he went on, evidently so full of his thought that he must speak it out; "she's dying joyfully." ”

“ She had tried to do what was right—at what sacrifice Mina knew; the reception of her offer Mina knew. Now [Pg 314] perhaps Mina could sympathize with her, and could understand the sort of way in which Cousin Harry received attempts to help him. On this point they drew together again.
"You must come back to Merrion, dear," urged Cecily.
Mina, who never meant to do anything else, embraced her friend and affectionately consented. It is always pleasant to do on entreaty what we might be driven to do unasked.
Good-by had to be said to Lady Evenswood. That lady was very cheerful about Harry ”

“ They strolled into a saloon on the Guttenberg road and had some beer. After leaving it he told her he wanted to go back to New York, and she objected. As they were talking, two men, he asserted, came along the road. One of them said to the woman: “Hello, Mina! what are you doing over here?” When he heard this familiar language he turned to his companion, and said: “If you are that kind of a woman, I’ll have nothing to do with you,” and then he parted from her, leaving her with the two men. ”

“ Thanks! You see, sometimes we are forced to do what we refuse when asked kindly. I think you had better buy that shadow back. I'll throw in the magic cap."
Meanwhile, Mina's mother had joined the verdurer, and they began to discuss Mina's approaching marriage and Gauner's wealth, which amounted to ten millions. Then Mina joined them. She was urged to consent, and finally said, sobbingly, "I have no further wish on earth. Do with me as you please." At this moment Gauner approached, and Mina fainted. ”

“ Mina was left very unquiet. Miss S. chimed in with the Major; the neighborhood too seemed in the same tune. She could laugh at the ingenuities attributed to her, yet the notions which had given them birth found, as she perceived more and more clearly, a warrant in her feelings, if not in her conduct. Look at it how she would, she was wrapped up in Harry Tris [Pg 111] tram; she spent her days watching his fortunes, any wakeful hour of the night found her occupied in thinking of him. Was she a traitor to her friend Janie Iver? ”

“ Mina did her best to look the part thus charitably assigned to her; her glance at Janie was matronly, almost maternal.
"Not that I know anything about it," Mrs Iver pursued, following a train of thought obvious enough. "I hope she'll act for her happiness, that's all. There's the dear Major looking for you—don't keep him waiting, dear. How lucky he's your uncle—he can always be with you."
"Until he settles and makes a home for himself," smiled Mina irrepressibly ”

“ She lived for good works and by gossip. Mina's sovereign (foreigners will not grasp the cheap additional handsomeness of a guinea) duly disbursed, conversation became general—that is to say, they talked about their neighbors.
"A hard young man," said Miss S. (Why be more genteel than her friends?) "And if Janie Iver thinks he's in love with her——"
"What do you mean by being in love, Miss Swinkerton?" ”

“ Mina insisted amiably. "Do tell me what it is."
"Here you are, Mina. There's the full title and description for you. There's nothing else in the paper." Iver handed it to her with a stifled yawn. She read and turned to Neeld with a quick jerk of her head.
"Journal and Correspondence of Josiah Cholderton!" she repeated. "Oh, but—oh, but—well, that is curious! Why, we used to know Mr Cholderton!"
"You knew Mr Cholderton?" said Mr Neeld in mild surprise. Then, with a recollection, he added, "Oh, at Heidelberg, I dare say? But you must have been a child?" ”

“ Mina loved a mystification too, and especially to mystify uncle Duplay, who thought himself so clever—was clever indeed as men went, she acknowledged generously; but men did not go far. It would be fun to choose Merrion Lodge for her summer home, first because her uncle would wonder why in the world she took it, and secondly because she had guessed that somebody might be surprised to see her there. So she laid her plan, even as she had played her tricks in the days when she was an odd little girl, and Mr Cholderton, not liking her, had with some justice christened her the Imp. ”

“ Her eyes challenged him to deny that she looked the part to perfection. She glanced through the window. "I met that funny little Madame Zabriska who lives up at Merrion Lodge to-day. She seems very anxious to know all about us."
"Madame Zabriska has a healthy—or unhealthy—curiosity." The mention of Mina was a fresh prick. Mina knew; suddenly he hated that she should know.
"Is she in love with you?" asked Cecily, mockingly yet languidly, indeed as a great lady might inquire about the less exalted, condescending to be amused.
"Nobody's in love with me, not even the girl who's going to marry me." ”

“ All that they care about is having men who can adopt all their cant phrases. If I were the apostle Paul himself they'd refuse to pass me, if they caught sight of this little scar upon my cheek." "What are you going to do then?" asked Mina anxiously, and laying her hand upon his arm, she added: "Oh, don't be a soldier!" "I should think not! No, I want to be a farmer." "The confounded young rascal!" muttered Bräsig. "Yes, my own dear little Mina," continued Rudolph, drawing her to his side on the bench, "I intend to be a farmer ”

“ At his death, which occurred about ten years since in Barcelona, he was a Field Marshal, a Grandé of Spain, and Vice-Roy of Navarre. His widow became Aya or Governess to the present Queen of Spain, Isabel, and held that post till the expulsion of Espartero. Mina had a brother, Xavier Mina, who entered the regular army at an early period of life, and likewise rose to the rank of Field Marshal. He was treacherously shot in Mexico by Morillo. ”

“ "Friend John, to you with so much of experience already—and you, too, dear Madam Mina, that are young—here is a lesson: do not fear ever to think. A half-thought has been buzzing often in my brain, but I fear to let him loose his wings. Here now, with more knowledge, I go back to where that half-thought come from and I find that he be no half-thought at all; that be a whole thought, though so young that he is not yet strong to use his little wings. ”

“ my will is made, and all complete. Mina if she survive is my sole heir. If it should not be so, then the others who have been so good to us shall have remainder. ”

“ “My dear Mina, why are men so noble when we women are so little worthy of them? ”

“ Mina and I fear to be idle, so we have been over all the diaries again and again. Somehow, although the reality seems greater each time, the pain and the fear seem less. ”

“ But though Mina had been born a tiller of the earth, he had died a grandee of Spain, ennobled yet more by his patriotism and great qualities than he could be by the tinsel of a title; the character of the countess was that of a high-minded and virtuous woman; and as to the accusation of being a santarona, or affectedly pious, it was no less unjust than malicious. Here is Captain Widdrington's portrait of her:—
"Her stature is rather below the middle size, and her person stout, with [Pg 183] an abundance of the blackest hair simply dressed ”

“ But Mina's grandmother telegraphed to Mother at Dröbak that I was safe and sound at Horten; and late in the evening a telegram came from Mother at Uncle Karl's, saying that I was to borrow some money from Mina's grandmother and that I was to take a little steamer up the fjord early the next morning.
Such queer things are always happening to me! I never heard of any girl who was left behind as I was on the wharf at Horten. Mina's grandmother wanted me to stay there a few days, and would have telegraphed to Mother to ask if I might ”

“ Oh, Madam Mina, good women tell all their lives, and by day and by hour and by minute, such things that angels can read; ”

“ Nothingness cannot be described. Deprived of the only boon that made living worth while for him--his letters to Minna--Jean-Christophe now only lived mechanically, and the only thing which interested him at all was when in the evening, as he was going to bed, he ticked off on the calendar, like a schoolboy, one of the interminable days which lay between himself and Minna's return. ”

“ Out of the mighty plunder we won here in the fight
I would give him five score horses, the which to him now take;
kiss thou his hand and earnestly plead with him for the sake
Of my wife Xiména and the twain, maids of my blood that be,
If yet it be his pleasure that they be brought to me.
I will send for them. But be it known how this my message runs:
The lady of my lord the Cid and her maids, my little ones,
Men shall seek for in such fashion that
They shall come to the strange country we have conquered by our
might."
To him Minaya answered: "Yea and with right good heart." ”

“ Whereupon Minna had dismissed her on the spot, and that evening found herself unchaperoned. Now, she had taken a little villa on the Cimiez Road, with a cool white loggia and tesselated floors. To live there in maiden seclusion was out of the question. To provide herself with the excitement that she craved, without some nominal protectress of her youth and beauty, would be to rank herself as unclassed. ”