Nansie

“ We do not owe one penny in the world. What do you think I discovered, Nansie?"
"I cannot imagine, dear."
"That I had a great deal more property than I supposed."
"That is delightful news, dear."
"Yes, isn't it?" said Kingsley, with a light, puzzled laugh. "When I say property, I don't mean land. Wish I could mean it, because it would represent something tangible in the way of an income, perhaps; and that is what we want, Nansie, don't we? An income."
"It would be very pleasant, dear," said Nansie, with a fond look of pity at him.
"Yes, very pleasant; it would rub away the crosses of life." ”

“ I am not a man to be turned from my purpose. He chose his course deliberately, and set me at defiance."
"No, sir, no!" cried Nansie. "He had no thought of that."
"Words do not alter facts. He owed me a plain duty, and he ignored it for a stranger. The lures you used to entangle and ruin him have proved effectual. You led him on to his destruction, and you are reaping what you have sown. Finish your errand."
"It is finished, sir," said Nansie, turning mournfully away. "I cannot doubt that you have spoken truly, and that you have not heard from my husband. ”

“ Oh, Kingsley!"
"Well, yes; such a careless, neglectful fellow as you have got for a husband, Nansie, never thinking of things at the right moment, never taking into account that it is necessary to eat even, until it is forced upon him that he must eat to live. And talking of eating to live--is there anything in the larder, Nansie?" ”

“ Why do you sigh, Nansie?"
"Did I sigh, Kingsley?" she asked, with feminine duplicity. "It must be because I am overjoyed that we are together."
"Dear girl! The reason I ramble on so about my father is because I wish you to know him thoroughly. He is very practical--so am I. Sentiment does not run in our family. Only he must be humored, because everything depends upon him. He is rather proud; he has a right to be so, being a self-made man. And obstinate; so am I. You do not know all sides of me yet, Nansie. ”

“ And yet Nansie was not satisfied with herself for being the cause of the conversation drifting into this channel.
"You see, my love," said Kingsley, in his brightest manner, and Nansie's heart beat gratefully at his cheerful tone, "when a truth comes home to a man he can, at all events, learn something from it, unless he be a worthless fellow. When he sees an example before him he can profit by it, if his mind be set upon it. ”

“ The earth is carpeted with wonders, and the air is fragrant with subtle perfumes. The gentle declivities are clothed in beauty, and the wondrous variety of greens and browns are a marvel to behold.
It was a balmy night, and the skies were full of stars. A clear pool reflected them, and Nansie and Kingsley stood upon the rustic bridge and looked down in silence and love and worship.
"In the method of my education, my dear Nansie," said Kingsley, as they walked from the bridge into the stillness of the woods, "I recognize now one end." ”

“ Why, father, how can you ask that? Nansie will be overjoyed, and Hester will go wild with delight and happiness. How often has the dear child asked, 'When am I going to see grandfather?' Well, now her desire will be gratified. She will see you, and will love and honor you, as we have always done, and we always shall do. Hush! Is not that Nansie's voice I hear?"
It was, indeed, Nansie who was speaking softly to Dr. Perriera in the shop without. Anxious about Kingsley, she had slipped on her hat and mantle, and had followed him. ”

“ My dear, I have questioned myself, I have asked: 'Does Nansie come up to your ideal? Is she the true woman you supposed her to be? Does she represent what you believed--the sweetness, the purity, the nobility, the tenderness which have sanctified the very name of woman?' The answer is: 'She is all, and more than all, you believed her to be. There is nothing in her that is not sweet, and true, and good. ”

“ Kingsley spoke gently, and as though he was not in the least dismayed by the example of an aimless life which presented itself in the career of Nansie's father. "Your father had great powers, Nansie, and could have accomplished great things if he had been industrious. But he was a happy as well as a good man. I cannot recall, in any person I ever knew, one who was so thoroughly happy as your father. He did harm to no man. His life was a good life." ”

“ Nansie's face was bright, and now and then her lips were wreathed in happy smiles, and now and then her eyes were filled with tears. And so we leave them. Flowers are blossoming; there is good in the future to be done. ”

“ Loveday.
"It is what all women do," she replied.
He did not dispute with her, although his experience was not favorable to her view. Inwardly he said: "What all women could not do, if they tried ever so hard, but then Nansie had perfection for a mother." His thoughts travelled frequently now to the early days when he loved the woman who was not to become his wife, and it may be that he accepted Nansie's companionship and presence as in some sense a recompense for his youthful disappointment, a meting out of poetical justice, as it were. ”

“ Your mother's, Nansie. I remember you told me it was Hester."
Then he called aloud, but in a gentle voice, "Hester!"
"She is awake, Kingsley," said Nansie, lifting the baby from the cradle and putting her into his arms.'
"This is a great joy to me," he said; "I really think she knows me; we shall be the best of friends. There is so much that is good in the world to show her--to teach her. Now, you and I together, love, will resolve to do our duty by her, and to do all that is in our power to make her happy."
CHAPTER XXVII. ”

“ You can guess some of them, Kingsley."
"The first and foremost is that he wished to keep us apart. He has not succeeded. I would hunt you all over the world, Nansie."
"You must not be unjust to my father," said Nansie, "He was always full of fancies, Kingsley, but never harbored a bad one; and you must remember he does not know our secret yet. I love and honor him; he is a good man."
"Or you could not have been his daughter. Full of fancies, indeed!" And Kingsley turned his head in the direction of the caravan. "Surely this is the strangest that ever entered the head of man! ”

“ Friends are not so plentiful, dead or alive."
CHAPTER XIV.
We return to Nansie and Kingsley. They were still in Godalming. Nansie's father was buried, a quiet funeral, with only Nansie and Kingsley as mourners; the horse and caravan were sold, and the loving couple who were now to commence the battle of life in real, right-down earnest, had taken humble lodgings for a week or two, pending the serious question as to what they should do. Until after the funeral Nansie had no heart to write to her uncle in London. ”

“ Nansie paused and sighed.
"But for myself," he said, taking up her words, "I have done that which is happiest and best, and that which falls to the lot of few men."
"Ah, Kingsley?" she said, hiding her face on his shoulder.
"I have won a faithful heart. What more could I desire?"
"It is sweet to hear you say so; but if your father should be angry--"
"What then? We are young and strong and willing, and shall be able to manage. I have friends who will give me a helping hand, as I would give them were our places changed. New men spring up every day, Nansie ”

“ Tell me, father."
They were sitting side by side now, and he was smoothing her hair with his hand.
"I am far from well, Nansie."
She interrupted him again, and now spoke with tremulous impetuosity.
"You should take advice, father. You should go to a doctor."
"There are reasons why I do not do so. First, Nansie, I have no money. Figuratively speaking, twopence ha'penny is all my fortune. To be exact, twenty-three shillings represents my worldly wealth. I am afraid I have been unwise, and yet I do not see what else I could have done. ”

“ I am in deep distress about him."
"Perhaps he is frightening himself unnecessarily, my dear. He must consult the best physicians. Thorough rest, freedom from anxiety, a warmer climate--leave it to me, Nansie. It is only a matter of money."
Nansie thought with sadness of the disclosure made by her father of the extent of his worldly resources, and at that moment the subject of her thoughts made his appearance. Mr. Loveday did not betray surprise at finding his daughter with Kingsley, but she blushed scarlet when she saw him, and Kingsley was not free from a certain embarrassment. ”

“ So you see, my dear, you are not quite logical. There is one thing in which we should find no beauty in change."
They strolled through the woods, exchanging fond endearments, pausing often in silence to drink in the sweetness and the beauty of the time and scene. They listened to the notes of the nightingale, and recalled the remembrances of the night when Kingsley came to Nansie in the caravan. ”

“ There was something so kindly and humorous in his speech, and in the expressions and gestures which accompanied it, that Nansie did not have the heart to check it or to dispute it with him.
"We should have to do without the piano, then; but it is hardly possible to live without music. ”

“ The rain has sweetened everything--for us! You are teaching me things, Nansie. I had no idea the early morning was so beautiful. The flowers, the dew--it is wonderful. If I were a poet I should say the earth was covered with jewels."
"You are a poet, Kingsley."
"No, no; I see things through your eyes. It is you who are the poet. But I have written verses, too. The fellows say poetry doesn't pay, and you must not encourage me. We must be sensibly worldly. ”

“ Is my uncle married?"
"No. In our last interview he vowed that he would never marry, and I doubt whether he would ever have yielded to the sentiment of love had his heart been again that way inclined. I deeply regret it. Life without love is at best a barren affair."
With a sweet look Nansie raised her dewy eyes to his. He divined what, in the darkness, he could not clearly see.
"It must be an honorable, honest, earnest love, child. You understand that?"
"I understand it, father." ”

“ There are plenty of bad days in all the seasons, even in the brightest, and it is those which make us enjoy the good all the more. In the last weeks of my dear father's life I learned a great deal from him; it was almost, Kingsley, as if he created a new life within me; and he had the power, in a few words, of unfolding wonders and making you understand them."
"Your dear father," said Kingsley, "was a wise and good man--a poet, too, and could have been almost anything in the artistic world he cared to aspire to. I have no doubt of that, Nansie, dear. And yet he was always poor, and died so." ”

“ But clear your decks, and here's — "The Sex!"
I like the jads for a' that.
Chorus
For a' that, an' a' that,
An' twice as muckle's a' that;
My dearest bluid , to do them guid,
They're welcome till't for a' that.
Recitativo
So sang the bard — and Nansie's wa's
Shook with a thunder of applause,
Re-echo'd from each mouth!
They toom'd their pocks , they pawn'd their duds,
They scarcely left to co'er their fuds,
To quench their lowin drouth:
Then owre again, the jovial thrang
The poet did request
To lowse his pack an' wale a sang,
A ballad o' the best ”

“ Here, then, is the theater, scene of such sublime [72] assault and conquest as the eye of history has not looked upon since Grant stood on Orchard Knob and watched his thin blue line scale Missionary Ridge; the hill of Nanshan, key to the advance on Port Arthur. Turned in its lock Nanshan confronts the Japanese, impregnable, ghastly grim in the fresh sunlight. We may well pause to inspect the position. It rises, formidable, the height of a church steeple, from a narrow plain. The edges of this plain dip sheer down a hundred feet of slippery rock to the two bays—Talienwan and Kinchow. ”

“ Nan knelt before the little shrine and opened her cage of fireflies. One after another found its freedom, darting out and floating up into the dimness of further distance. They stood watching them glimmering fitfully under the dark trees. "They seem like departing souls, themselves," said Nan. "They make me think of 'Vital spark of heavenly flame.'"
"Then you have found in them a symbol that the Japanese seem not to have discovered. ”

“ THE BATTLE OF NANSHAN THE thunder and lightning in the direction of Nanshan became fiercer and fiercer as time went on. How was it being fought? With what courage and perseverance were our comrades acquitting themselves? Was the place already occupied, or were they still struggling on? We must hurry forward to take part in this our first battle; it was an opportunity too great for us to miss. How soon should we be ordered to march? We were thus impatient and fidgeting, our minds racing toward Nanshan. ”

“ When Arima and I had visited Naniwa it had taken us exactly two hours from his house to the monastery hill. But yesterday I had walked for many hours, and to-day seemed no nearer my goal. Grey interminable moorland stretched before me with a mountain blocking the way at a distance and other tossing peaks beyond. Where was I? Where was Naniwa? Might I not walk for ever and ever in widening circles to a lost goal? The ground whispered with evil in every blade of grass. It hissed in the rustle of dry squat bushes. ”

“ From the border of this plain rise sombre mountains, Nantaisan a giant among them, with green and purple veils of shadows and a crown of floating clouds. No sign of habitation or cultivation marks the high plain, which, with its loneliness and its scattered pines, is so much like the valleys of the high Sierras. Everywhere else in Japan the country is wooded and shaded and cultivated from water's edge to mountain-top ”