Miss Dare

“ They dared not cheer; but it was obvious on which side were their sympathies.
"Funny sensation whipping a man," remarked Dare, meditatively when he told the story, "It's so devilish difficult to hit him and avoid your own legs, even when you've had a Walters to practise on."
The next day Dare received a note from Mrs. Standish, which made it clear that so far from appreciating his chivalry, she was engaged in mourning over her stricken lord, moistening his poultices with her tears.
"Queer things, women," said Dare; "chivalry is as dead as Queen Anne." ”

“ At length Eleanor Dare’s husband fell ill and lay dying.
“O dear heart, my soul is filled with anguish when I think of leaving you and the child,” he moaned. “Who will protect my defenceless ones? Look again from the window. Is there no sail in sight? Nothing? And my strength is ebbing fast. Put the little one beside me that I may kiss her.”
“My husband, let us put our trust in God, and help me say, ‘Though He slay me, yet I will trust him.’ It will be but a little while before Virginia and I will join you. There is no ending to our love. Can you hear me, dear one?” ”

“ Many emotions stirred Pamela while she waited through the sunny warmth of the summer day for Dare’s return. The horror of the morning had passed. She was quite collected now, and able to dwell dispassionately on the changed life that confronted her.
Dare had told her, and she had inclined to believe him, that only love mattered. Now, while she sat alone, thinking quietly, and reviewing all her past life as it stood in relation to the future, she realised that love is not the principal factor in life ”

“ But—" he felt very angry, though he could not for the moment tell why—"if you are only talking to [43] gratify your spite, and have nothing to tell me except the fact that Miss Dare appeared shocked and anxious when she came from the widow's house just now, look out what use you make of her name, or you will get yourself into trouble. Mr. Orcutt and Mr. Ferris are not men to let you go babbling round town about a young lady of estimable character." ”

“ A quick look of surprise and gladness sprang to her face.
"Papa—at Castle Dare!" she exclaimed. "And Christina says it is not far from here."
"Not many miles away."
"Then, of course, they will know we are here in the morning!" she cried, in the indiscretion of sudden joy. "And they will come out for me."
"Oh no, Gerty, they will not come out for you. No human being but those on board knows that we are here. Do you think they could see you from Dare? And there is no one living now on the island. We are alone in the sea." ”

“ But difficulties met courageously present the weapons for their own defeat. The power of conquest comes of the determination to conquer.
When Dare returned, and came up to the balcony in search of her, he discovered her, as he believed, asleep. She was sitting so still, with closed eyes, and was so deeply plunged in thought that she did not hear him until he was close upon her. Then her eyelids flashed open abruptly, and a flush suffused the pallor of her cheeks.
“I’ve only got a minute,” he said, pausing in front of her. “The taxi is waiting. Come inside, Pamela. We can’t part here.” ”

“ More than one grave had been made; the Indians looking on in awe and wonder at the Christian burial. Mrs. Dare had learned many Indian words, and in a quiet way she had done much for the neglected women and children, for there were such among those poor savages, as there are to-day in our own civilized towns and villages; and in that way she won not only their hearts, but the hearts of the men also. There is no surer way in the world to a man’s heart than through his children.
All this time the baby Virginia grew. The soft down on her round head had changed to a halo of golden curls. ”

“ Poor Iosco lay gasping, delirious, and exhausted. Manteo thought he was dying, and caught Mrs. Dare’s hand almost fiercely as he cried, “Ask the Great Spirit! Oh, ask him quickly!”
She knelt down quietly by the poor boy, Virginia knelt too, and all followed their example. There had been regular hours for prayer before Howe and Gage had been lost; since then, all were welcome who cared to come to Mrs. Dare’s wigwam for devotions. She felt keenly a woman’s dislike to put herself conspicuously before the world, even though it were a little heathen world ”

“ Could he still live for [173] love? For life could not be without love. Could he live for the love of that great chief, that holy Jesus? Did he want his love? How could he give his service, his life if need be? Oh, for some one to teach him as Mrs. Dare had done when he was a little child!
The storm beat fiercely against him as he rose and forced his way through the tangle of the forest. But a peace he could not describe had crept into his heart. He must be near Owaissa. To-morrow that white father might come and carry her away. ”

“ Again Dare was conscious of his personal interest in this part of the story. The self-confessed decrease in her love for the man who was not her husband, affected him directly. He felt glad that she had told him that.
She passed on to Arnott’s infatuation for the girl, who was her children’s governess, of their disappearance on the same day, and the inevitable conclusion which, against her own will, she had arrived at in connection with that circumstance, and the fact that he had not written, nor sent any explanation of his absence. ”

“ I don't believe she thinks I'm not what I give myself out to be."
"No," agreed Dare. "But you'll have to go carefully there. It's my belief it's no use trying to pump her now. She'll be on her guard. Still, it won't hurt to quieten down her suspicions if she has any."
"You said it."
In a few minutes they had reached the quay. The Nancy was lying almost level with it on a flood tide.
"What shall we do now?" asked Dare.
"I was thinkin' of takin' a nap," confessed Ben. "There's no use tryin' to see that feller Giraud till three o'clock."
"All right," said Dare. ”

“ An elderly lady of six-and-fifty winters, whose face is Arctic, and is framed, moreover, in corkscrew curls that look horribly like icicles, can throw an extraordinary stress and feeling in the mild word, “man.” And this instant, such an amount did my aunt employ that a feather might have knocked me down.
“Shall I tell you this man’s name?” the pitiless dowager inquired.
In assent I bowed my head.
“Anthony Dare,” says she, with unction; “escaped rebel, who is to be hanged as a common malefactor.”
“Yes, aunt, Anthony Dare,” says I; “and ’tis all very true, except in the main particular. ”

“ Having seen a few of his more important patients, he walked round to his friend's flat and found Dare in a pathetic state of gloom.
"Have you brought the hypodermic syringe and the morphia?" he asked without troubling to greet his visitor.
"What! Tired of life?" questioned Dick Little smiling.
"I am tired of a civilization that is rotten, and which makes injustice possible."
"What has happened?"
"I published The Damning of a Soul in The Cormorant, and arranged with the editor for a copy to be sent to every publisher in the country. Ye gods!" and Dare laughed mirthlessly. ”

“ When we stand at the parting of the ways how difficult seems the road, how bitter the moment of farewell. But sorrow is no longer enduring than any other emotion. We take our lives again, and go on.
Chapter Thirty Four. Some years later Dare sat in his room before an untidy desk with a letter spread out before him among the litter of papers and things lying about. The letter was from Pamela, between whom and himself, since the occasion when he had been present at her marriage in Pretoria, these regular but infrequent communications formed the sole link. ”

“ You must tell the people how to bake a pie, to cure a headache, to bleach a shirt, to speak the truth, to clean silverware, to make a proposal of marriage. Mrs. Dares did it in country letters, in city letters, in newspaper editorials, in anonymous fine-print columns, in the back parts of fashion and household magazines—and she does it still. For a number of years past she has superintended a periodical of the popular sort, which I dare say you have never heard of. The amount of work that she accomplishes is enormous. ”

“ But whether he was on the hillside, or down in the glen, or out among the islands, or whether he was trying to satisfy the hunger of his heart with books long after every one in Castle Dare had gone to bed, he could not escape from this gnawing and torturing anxiety. It was no beautiful and gentle sentiment that possessed him—a pretty thing to dream about during a summer's morning—but, on the contrary, a burning fever of unrest, that left him peace nor day nor night. "Sudden love is followed by sudden hate," says the Gaelic proverb ”

“ Conspicuous among the hundreds of elegant women present was “Shirley Dare,” the Washington correspondent of the New York World. She was robed in blue satin, which was extremely becoming to her refined face, milky complexion, and amber-tinted hair. Her dress throughout was comme il faut as one of her own fashion letters, and among all the literary women who shine at the capital she is the one whom the writer feels most like grasping by the hand. She is the true woman journalist, [197] who accepts the situation, and is willing to fight the battle of life on the woman’s platform. ”

“ Her god will hear her voice, though it be soft as a morning breeze in the budding time.”
They passed out into the biting wind, the tall chief bowed with grief, the delicate English lady, and the sweet child with golden hair, and walked over the frozen snow to Manteo’s wigwam. Mrs. Dare bent over Iosco as he lay on a tussan of balsam on the floor of the wigwam, restless with fever. She stroked the dark hair back from the flushed forehead, and then turning [99] to Virginia, said in English, “Go and ask Mistress Wilkins to give you the red herbs, and bring them to me quickly, dear.” ”

“ It is young Anthony Dare."
"He has not pleasing manners."
"Not to us. There is not a more arrogant youth in the town. But his private character is not well spoken of."
Jane sat down to write to Mr. Dare. Her brother Francis, to whom she had explained her situation, had promised her the rent for the half-year due, sixteen pounds, by the middle of February. He could not let her have it before that period, he said, but she might positively count upon it then. She begged Mr. Dare to accord her the favour of waiting until then. ”

“ The children cried for food, and not getting it, sickened and died. The women made fires and offered gifts to the Great Spirit of the Hunt. Manteo and his Christian people offered prayers daily. But all appeared to be of no avail.
[96] Mrs. Dare was lying on her tussan of skins, and Virginia kneeling by her, with her arms tightly round her mother’s neck. They were talking as they often did together. Virginia was saying, “But, mamma, why does God send trouble and sorrow and pain to us if he really loves us?” ”

“ "I do not believe a word of it, my dear. If he had been so very agreeable, he would have talked to Mrs. Long. But I can guess how it was; everybody says that he is eat up with pride, and I dare say he had heard somehow that Mrs. Long does not keep a carriage, and had come to the ball in a hack chaise." ”

“ It lies beneath a sunless sky,
Deep in the entrails of a bog;
Gnarled willows hide it, lifting high
Their tortured arms; and never frog,
Nor newt, nor toad, nor dragonfly
Dare come within its deadly fog. ”

“ Then I heard a quick step in the shrubbery, as of some one sent to summon us, and reluctantly released from my hold the embodiment at that instant of all I esteemed noblest and loveliest in woman. With characteristic composure, Miss Darry answered the message by gathering some of the [Pg 690] roses beside us, and turning to reënter the house. Afraid of my own lack of self-control, I would gladly have gone home like a blushing girl; but my new pride of protecting Miss Darry under all circumstances of difficulty compelled me to follow her. ”

“ Madame— (her eyes half closed, leaning back in hey armchair, her head bent with emotion, she places her hands before his mouth. In a low voice) —Hush, hush! Don't say that, dear; not another word! If you knew how wrong it was!
Monsieur—Wrong! What is there that is wrong? Is your heart of marble or adamant, that you do not see that I love you, you naughty child? That I hold out my arms to you, that I long to clasp you to my heart, and to fall asleep in your hair? What is there more sacred in the world than to love one's wife or love one's husband? ”

“ Somehow Miss Darry's confession of a little feminine timidity put me more at ease with her than I had ever been before. I was a strong, muscular fellow of nineteen, perfectly able to defend myself in circumstances of ordinary danger, and proud that a woman so superior to me should trust in my readiness to protect her. Life and vigor tingled in every nerve of my body; the clear, stinging winter air, exhilarating to healthy, as wine is to enfeebled bodies, thrilled me with enjoyment ”

“ Not more than one woman had ever been able to boast of having been his mistress longer than a week. And yet he had loved once in his life, loved with a noble passion a young girl with a face full of lofty beauty, eyes in whose look were depths of loyalty and truth, and on whose brow purity sat enthroned. And that woman, whom he had thus loved, whose image had never become completely effaced from his memory—that woman was Dora! whom he here found again lovelier still than in bygone years, and married to a man who was evidently absorbed in his invention and his calculations. ”