Mrs. Davilow

“ Davy drew a long breath. “So you think,” said he, “that the sweet woman in the church is loving her husband in spite of all?”
“Fear she is, poor fool,” said Lovibond.
“Bless her!” said Davy, beneath his breath. “D’ye think, now,” said he, “that all women are like that?”
“Many are—too many,” said Lovibond.
“Equal to forgiving and forgetting, eh?” said Davy.
“Yes—the sweet simpletons—and taking the men back as well,” said Lovibond.
“Extraordinary!” said Davy. “Aw, matey, matey, men’s only muck where women comes. Women is reg’lar eight-teen-carat goold. ”

“ Davy muttered, under his breath. “She’s like the silvery fir tree with her little dark head agen the sky. Trust me for knowing her! I’d be doing that if I was blind. Yes, would I though, if I was only the grass under her feet, and she walked on me. She’s coming! My God, then, it’s true! It’s true, Davy! Hould hard, boy! She’s a woman for all! She’s here! She sees me! She thinks I’m the man?”
In the strange mood of the moment he was half sorry to take her by surprise.
Davy was right that Mrs. Quiggin saw him. ”

“ Unconsciously he had begun to walk toward Castle Mona. “I’m not for misdoubting my wife, not me; but then a man may be over certain. I’ll find out for myself; and if it’s true, if she’s there, if she meets him.... Well, well, be aisy for all, Davy; be aisy, boy, be aisy! If the worst comes to the worst, and you’ve got to cut your stick, you’ll be doing it without a heart-ache anyway. She’ll not be worth it, and you’ll be selling yourself to the Divil with a clane conscience. So it’s all serene either way, Davy, my man, and here goes for it.” ”

“ Davy found him, with a broken wing, and nursed him carefully till he was well; then let him go, though he was very fond of "Little Gulliver," as he called him in fun. But the bird never forgot the boy, and came daily to talk with him, telling all manner of wild stories about his wanderings by land and sea, and whiling away many an hour that otherwise would have been very lonely.
Old Dan was Davy's uncle,—a grim, gray man, who said little, did his work faithfully, and was both father and mother to Davy, who had no parents, and no friends beyond the island. That was his world ”

“ Davy drew up on the path. “What is it?” he said.
“I’m to meet her to-night, alone,” said Lovibond.
“No!”
“Yes; in the grounds of Castle Mona, by the waterfall, after dark—at eight o’clock, in fact.
“Castle Mona—by the waterfall—eight o’clock—that’s a—now, that must be a—”
Davy had lifted his pipe hand to give emphasis to the protest on his lips, when he stopped and laughed, and said, “Amazing thick, eh?”
“Why not,” said Lovibond? “Who wouldn’t be with a sweet woman like that? If the fool that’s left her doesn’t know her worth, so much the better for somebody else.” ”

“ Davy looked up with vast solemnity. “Take care,” said he. “There’s odds of women, sir. They’re like sheep’s broth is women. If there’s a heart and head in them they’re good, and if there isn’t you might as well be supping hot water. Faces isn’t the chronometer to steer your boat to the good ones. Now I’ve seen some you could swear to——.”
“I’ll swear to this one,” said Lovibond with an appearance of tremendous earnestness.
Davy looked at him, gravely. “D’ye say so?” ”

“ Davy put up his pipe on the mantelpiece. “Now the man that does the like of that is a scoundrel,” he said, warmly.
“I agree with you, Capt’n,” said Lovibond.
“He’s a brute!” said Davy, more loudly.
“Of course we’ve only heard one side of the story,” said Lovibond.
“No matter; he’s a brute and a scoundrel,” said Davy. “Dont you hould with me there, mate?”
“I do,” said Lovibond. “But still—who knows? She may—I say she may—be one of those women who want their own way.”
“All women wants it,” said Davy. “It’s mawther’s milk to them—Mawther Eve’s milk, as you might say.” ”

“ Lovibond had kept pace with Davy’s warmth, but now he paused and said quietly, “I’m afraid she’s in trouble.”
“Poor thing!” said Davy. “How’s that, mate?”
“People can never disguise their feelings in singing a hymn,” said Lovibond.
“You say true, mate,” said Davy; “nor in giving one out neither. Now, there was old Kinvig. He had a sow once that wasn’t too reg’lar in her pigging. Sometimes she gave many, and sometimes she gave few, and sometimes she gave none. She was a hit-and-a-missy sort of a sow, you might say. ”

“ Davy was about to light his pipe, but he flung away the match.
“Have you never thought of it?” said Lovibond, “That when a husband deserts his wife like this he throws her in the way of—”
“Not Nelly, no,” said Davy, promptly. “I’ll lave that with her, anyway. Any other woman perhaps, but Nelly—never! She’s as pure as new milk, and no beast milk neither. Nelly going wrong, eh? Well, well! I’d like to see the man that would... I may have treated her bad... but I’d like to see the man, I say...” ”

“ Davie is too wise and grave for his years.”
“He is not too wise to do very foolish things sometimes; and he is the merriest among the children at home, though we don’t hear his voice quite so often as Jem’s. And you must remember that Davie’s experience has been very different from yours.”
“Yes, Aunt Mary, I know. Frank has told me how happy you all were, and how Davie was always so much with his father. It must have been very terrible for you all.”
“And, Philip, Davie has tried to take his father’s place among us. Davie is our bread-winner, in a measure. ”

“ The eyes of the two men met, and Michael became suddenly conscious that the other was struggling in the grip of some strong emotion. He could even sense its atmosphere of antagonism towards himself.
“I think”—Davilof spoke with slow intensity—“I think she’s a soulless piece of devil’s mechanism.” And turning abruptly, he swung out of the box, slamming the door behind him.
Quarrington frowned. With his keen perceptions it was not difficult for him to divine what lay at the back of Davilof’s bitter criticism. The man was in love—hopelessly in love with the Wielitzska. ”

“ And when the mawther saw me she smoothed her brat and dried her hands, and catched at the little one, and chuckled over her, and clucked at her and kissed her, with her own face slushed like rain, till yer’d have thought nothing but it was one of her own that had been lost and was found agen. Aw, women for your life, mate, for forgiveness.’”
Lovibond did not speak, and Davy began to laugh in a husky voice.
“Bless me, the talk a man will put out when he’s a bit over the rope and thinking of ould times,” he said. ”

“ Now as they sat there a silence came upon them like that of their wedding-day. Elizabeth broke it first.
“Davie,” she whispered, “if I’d say I’d jest like to run through the house a minute by myself, you won’t think it queer?”
“No, no,” answered Davie, something gripping his chest.
She went slowly, her slippers flapping back and forth on her heels. She sought first the tidy kitchen with its scoured tins, then the living-room with the old loom still in the corner, then the parlor. Here she drew a long, shaken breath. Every Ridge woman loved her parlor with an inherited devotion. ”

“ Now, however, when I saw Mme. Dauvray so feverish, so excited, so firmly convinced that great ladies from the spirit world came and spoke to her, I became terrified. I had aroused a passion which I had not suspected. I tried to stop the séances, but I was not allowed. I had aroused a passion which I could not control. I was afraid that Mme. Dauvray's whole life—it seems absurd to those who did not know her, but those who did will understand—yes, her whole life and happiness would be spoilt if she discovered that what she believed in was all a trick. ”

“ Daiv said humbly, yet at the same time pridefully, "So Meg believed, O Mother, until I taught her differently—and until she learned the Great Secret at the feet of the Gods. I am Daiv, known as 'He-who-would-learn'; I come from the place of the Escape. My people live by the Laws of the Ancient Ones. In our land Man and Woman are equal; we give and take love in the sacred customs of marriage." ”

“ But you always know’d how the ould sow done, by the way Kinvig gave out the hymn. If it was six he was as loud as a clarnet, and if it was one his voice was like the tram-bones. But go on about the girl.”
“That’s all,” said Lovibond. “When the service was over I walked down the aisle behind her, and touched her dress with my hand, and somehow—”
“I know,” cried Davy. “Gave you a kind of ‘lectricity shock, didn’t it? Lord alive, mate, girls is quare things.” ”

“ Even towards persons who had been his greatest benefactors, and who possessed the greatest share of his good-will, he frequently displayed much caprice and jealousy. A lady who had known him from his infancy, and who has furnished us in the most obliging manner with some particulars respecting him, says, that although Davie showed as much respect and attachment to her father’s family, as it was in his nature to show to any, yet they were always obliged to be very cautious in their deportment towards him. ”

“ Madame Davilliers was richly attired in crimson and black brocade, with white plumes in her bonnet; her daughter in diaphanous dove-color and pink; while Miss Lambert, who was unusually animated, looked lovely in soft, clear white Indian muslin over spring-like green, with abundance of delicate lace, and a poetic little bonnet decorated with violets, which showed the wavy richness of her golden-brown hair.
She was listening with an amused smile to some remarks of Monsieur Davilliers, a good-humored looking and rather ponderous man, with a morsel of red ribbon in his button-hole. ”

“ She’s not only married, but married to a brute.”
“That’s wuss still,” said Davy.
“And not only married to a brute,” said Lovibond, “but parted from him.”
Davy gave a yet longer whistle. “O-ho, O-ho! A quarrel is it?” he cried. “Husband and wife, eh? Aw, take care, sir, take care. Women is ‘cute. Extraordinary wayses they’ve at them of touching a man up under the watch-pocket of the weskit till you’d never think nothing but they’re angels fresh down from heaven, and you could work at the docks to keep them ”

“ Antoine Davilof had lived so long in England that he spoke without trace of accent, though he sometimes gave an unEnglish twist to the phrasing of a sentence, but his quick emotion and the simplicity with which he made no effort to conceal it stamped him unmistakably as a foreigner.
A little touched, Magda allowed her hand to remain in his.
“Why, Davilof!” She chided him laughingly. “You’re quite absurdly upset about it.”
“I could not have borne it if you had been hurt,” he declared vehemently. “You ought not to go about by yourself. ”

“ The youngest never grows up, and to each of us Davie seemed almost more a son than a brother, and we never lost for him—even when he was grown up and a soldier—the almost passionate tenderness that we had for the little delicate boy. He was the delight of our lives, always. I remember when I arrived in India almost the first thing Robbie wanted to be told was Davie's latest sayings. He had a name for each of us peculiarly his own. Nobody ever called me 'Nana' but Davie, and why he christened Jim 'Ney' no one ever knew. But, Mother, it was only as a baby that he was so very plain. ”

“ She isn’t so very far away, boy; she’s here for all.’ And when I’ve been going into some dirt of a place that a dacent man shouldn’t, it’s been cutting at my ribs, same as a knife, and crying like mad, ‘Hould hard, Davy; you can’t take Nelly in theer?’ When I’ve been hot it’s been keeping me cool, and when I’ve been cold it’s been keeping me warm, better till any comforter. D’ye see it, sir? We’re ould comrades, it and me, the best that’s going, and never no quarreling and no words neither. ”

“ An' it's no' a bad trade, an' things are gaun weel, an' I'm no' complainin'," he added, more cheerfully.
"But you'll get time for your gardening soon again, Davie," she said.
"We'll see, we'll see."
"Oh, but, Davie—" she began, and stopped, lest she should say too much.
Suddenly he turned towards her. "Ye're the best wife a man ever had, an' I envy naebody," he exclaimed. "The fire was maybe a guid thing. It was a guid thing because o' yersel', ma dear."
"But, Davie," she said, breaking a long silence, "supposing the shop hadn't been insured—"
"I wud ha'e been dune for. Fine I ken that!" ”

“ When I’ve been far away foreign, and losing heart a bit, and down with the fever, maybe, in that ould hell, and never looking to see herself again, no, never, I’ve been touching it gentle and saying to myself, soft and low, like a sort of an angel’s whisper, ‘Nelly is with you, Davy. ”

“ So, Davie, you 're gaeing to tak yo' a wife
To halve a' yo' sorrows, an' sweeten yo' life;
An' Davie, my laddie, I wish you enow
Of joy and content on your shiny auld pow.
She 's feat and she 's brightsome, I ken, as the day
When sinshine is whispering its luve to the May;
Her cheeks are like blossoms, her mouth is a rose,
And her teeth are the pearlies its petals enclose.
Of her voice, her ain music, I dinna' say mair,
Than that 'tis a strain might a bogle ensnare,
And her een they are stars beaming forth a bright flame
To cheer a puir wanderer and lead him safe hame. ”

“ Davy had been brought up to be honest. I am sure that he did not mean to steal the cologne-bottle. The idea of stealing never entered his mind, and it would have shocked him had it done so. He was an imaginative little fellow, and the tiny waif seemed to him like a shell or a pebble, something coming out of the sea, which any one was at liberty to pick up and keep. He did not say to himself that it probably belonged to the captain, who might have a value for it, he did not think about the captain at all, he only thought of Bella. ”