Rowena

“ Rowena got her trap and pony, and trundled about the sweet-smelling lanes with the children inside it.
Before long they were on pleasant terms of intimacy with their neighbours, but to Rowena Mrs. Burke was the most interesting personality of them all.
She was always entertaining; and as the summer drew on, private theatricals, tennis parties, and picnics followed each other in quick succession. Her friends from town were not always liked by the county. She had a good many Bohemians, and stray geniuses, who contributed towards the general gaiety with their freakish talent. ”

“ When Eric woke to thought, the light had flown,
With Hope upon its wing
And left Despair.
One thought alone could light and comfort bring—
His secret—This, not death should from him tear.
Rowena's safe retreat, he never would make known!
The rasp of grating chains and rush of air
Awoke the sleeping page
From frightful dreams.
A voice he heard. Alas! 'twas fierce with rage,
While on his sight there flashed the fitful gleams
Of warders' arms. In haste they clangour down the stair.
"Come forth, young man! Sir Guy awaits above.
We dare not tarry long;
He's mad this morn. ”

“ Sir Guy had heard afar the tidings fell
Of Harold Wynn's return
From Holy Land.
The news more fiercely made his wrath to burn.
Hence hot with hate he sought Old Ragnor's strand,
Whose peaceful haunts became again a very hell.
By Eric fed, the beacon lamp once more
Shone o'er the treach'rous sea
Which hid Death's maw.
Rowena had a secret gate whose key,
Her page had used. Her light, Sir Guy first saw.
O madd'ning sight! "If saved, Rowena dies," he swore.
The light of life, he quenched, and straightway hung
A lamp to lure to death. ”

“ Rowena—herself a woman—would understand some things which even the good husband could not grasp. In the happy, easy days of prosperity, Rowena could always be relied on to be loving, dutiful, and considerate—it was a shock to discover that these good qualities had not enough foundation to withstand the test of adversity. ”

“ Rowena watched with anxiety Mrs. Burke's efforts to capture the girl's affection. She saw how much she loved her popularity, and how she tried to attract the young. Always fearless, Rowena spoke to her one day about it: "Do you really think you will put fresh happiness into Maude's life by making her discontented with her home, and giving her a taste for things out of her sphere?"
"I love to see the young thoughtless. They ought to be."
"It's the crackling of the thorns under the pot," said Rowena. "I often wonder how you can keep it up; you are worthy of higher things!" ”

“ Rowena remained silent, and Cedric answered for her in his native Saxon.
“The Lady Rowena,” he said, “possesses not the language in which to reply to your courtesy, or to sustain her part in your festival. I also, and the noble Athelstane of Coningsburgh, speak only the [68] language and practice only the manners, of our fathers. We therefore decline with thanks your Highness’s courteous invitation to the banquet. To-morrow, the Lady Rowena will take upon her the state to which she has been called by the free election of the victor Knight, confirmed by the acclamations of the people.” ”

“ The smuggler promised, but when Eric read
The note, he knew Sir Guy
Was far away.
No need of guide, the horse did homewards fly
And at St. Hilda's gate alone made stay.
This was the night young Eric stood beside Rowena's bed.
Soon after midnight, life once more returned;
Her pulse beat full and fast.
The fever's power,
Some mystic spell had bound but not to last,
Save for one long more dead than living hour;
And now with force renewed, it once more raged and burned.
"Fly, Eric, fly," she cried, and pointed where
The morn's sweet dawning gleamed. ”

“ Rowena herself, however, had never given her consent to such an alliance; and entertained but a poor opinion of her would-be lover, whose pretensions for her hand she had received with marked disdain. Her Saxon lover was not one of her party at the tourney on the second day. He had observed with displeasure that Rowena was selected by the victor on the preceding day as the object of that honour which it became his privilege to confer, and Athelstane, confident of his own strength and skill, had himself donned his armour with a determination to make his rival feel the weight of his battle-axe. ”

“ It is said by some writers that Vortigern married Rowena, the daughter of Hengist. She was very beautiful; and when introduced by her father at the royal banquet of the British king, she advanced gracefully and modestly towards him, bearing in her hand a golden goblet filled with wine. Young people, even of the highest rank, were accustomed to wait upon their elders, and those unto whom they wished to show respect; therefore, the appearance of Rowena as the cup-bearer of the feast was neither unbecoming nor unseemly. ”

“ Guy Seton privately expected Rowena to follow Maud’s example and quietly disappear, so he admired all the more the pretty little air of dignity with which she stuck to her post and forced herself to take her natural part in the conversation.
“Plucky little girl! Stands to her guns, and won’t allow herself to run away,” he told himself approvingly, as he proceeded to unfold the object of his visit. ”

“ fair Rowena,” returned De Bracy, “you are in presence of your captive, not your jailor; and it is from your fair eyes that De Bracy must receive that doom which you fondly expect from him.” ”

“ To beg she soon might see her Harold face to face.
The smuggler begged young Eric show the road
He'd come. Then armed they go;
But without need;
For where Rowena's page alighted, lo!
The missive lay. They hasten back with speed;
And as they give God thanks, more eyes than one o'erflowed.
Another Dungeon Tenant. "We e'en must quit, dear Mike, thy safe retreat;
'Tis clear, they're on our track.
Of this be sure,
That you henceforth in life shall nothing lack
That heart can wish or wealth of mine procure. ”

“ When at last we left, at my insistence, the Countess, at the suggestion of her husband, invited us to dine the following night.
"Stewart was silent on the way in—moody, taciturn, tugging at his crisp mustache. As we entered the house he burst out:
"'Did you ever see a more beautiful woman, Leyden? Jove, what hair! what a figure!'
" 'I find the husband more interesting,' said I. 'Any white woman would be beautiful if one stood her up against the shadow of the equator.'
"He grunted like a peccary. 'Her husband?—her proprietor!— it's gross flattery to speak of that wreck as her husband. ”

“ At any rate, an unexpected touch of shyness lowered her lashes. She caught up the baby and handed him to the father.
“Here is your son,” she said, the colour glowing in her cheeks.
Rowan looked at the little being that was flesh of his flesh and blood of his blood, and his heart went out to the child in complete surrender. Something primeval, old as the race, set him in an inner tumult. The flame of life had passed through him to this dimpled babe. The child was his—and Ruth’s. If he lived to be a hundred, he would never again know quite the ecstasy of that moment. ”

“ You are all that I have, now," said the queen.
But Childe Rowland asked again and again, till at last the queen said, "Go, my boy."
Then she gave him his father's sword, and he set out.
He went to the wise man and asked the way.
The wise man told him and said:
"I will tell you two things. One thing is for you to do, and one thing is for you not to do.
[15]
"The thing to do is this: When you get to the country of the elves, take hold of your father's sword, pull it out quickly, and cut off the head of any one who speaks to you, till you find the princess Ellen. ”

“ Nothing now perhaps could have caused him such distress as the thought that Rowan and Isabel would never marry. All the love that he had any right to pour into any life, he had always poured with passionate and useless yearnings into Rowan's—son, of the only woman he had ever loved—the boy that should have been his own. ”

“ She laughed outright and turned to glance at the house. "And you know that Giles's rooms are on this side, because you know how fond he is of pets, and the pigeons are all fluttering around that corner window."
Sir Henry stared. "My word! My dear child——"
"Thank you, Miss Moultrie," said Leyden, "you more than bear me out." His keen eyes rested on her. "If you will permit me to say so, your quickness of perception is extraordinary for a house dweller; you apply these things, the things you see; you apply them to the convenience of your daily life."
"Does not every one?" asked Virginia. ”

“ Left to himself, Rowan did not at once return to his magazine. His mind drifted to the girl he was on his way to marry. It was likely these days, whenever he was not busy, to go back to her, magnetized by the lure of her dark-eyed beauty. The softness and fragility of his sweetheart moved him to awe. That her fancy had selected him out of so many admirers was to him still an amazing miracle. He did not know that the mystery back of his silence had captured her imagination just as the poignancy of her piquant charm had laid a spell on his. ”

“ The count leaned back and his lips writhed in a terrible smile. I felt myself growing cold.
“I believe her, Sep,” said the count. “I have had sad reason to know something of her type—the lovely body incasing a diabolic soul.”
He rose briskly from his chair and stepped to the head of the bed, where he reached for the heavy, braided cord with its huge tassel, and glanced back at the girl, who was watching him in a sort of spellbound terror.
“I think,” said the count softly, “that I shall send for Mustapha.” ”

“ There was no ground for actual uneasiness concerning Rowan's health, for Rowan's neighbors assured him in response to his inquiries that he was well and at work on the farm.
"If he is in trouble, why does he not come and tell me? Am I not worth coming to see? Has he not yet understood what he is to me? But how can he know, how can the young ever know how the old love them? And the old are too proud to tell." ”

“ But every friend of yours feels perfectly sure that Rowan was unworthy of you, and that you did right in discarding him. It is safe to say that he has few friends left among yours. He seldom comes to town, and I hear that he works on the farm like a common hand as he should. One day not long after you left I met him on the street. He was coming straight up to speak to me as usual. But I had the pleasure of staring him in the eyes and of walking deliberately past him as though he were a stranger—except that I gave him one explaining look. ”

“ Virginia's eyes had assumed peculiar rapt expression, pupils dilated and focused beyond the point upon which the vision rested, voice of a peculiar flat tone; semi-autohypnosis. At the naturalist's brusque note she started, looked puzzled, vexed, then laughed nervously.
"What was I saying? You are an odd man, Dr. Leyden; one unclothes one's mind in your presence with a shocking lack of modesty. Speaking of Dessalines, there he is ahead of us." ”

“ Just before the curtain fell Léontine and Kharkoff left the box. Edith turned to me.
“Did you ever see so wonderful a creature?” she asked.
“Did you?” said Miss Dalghren.
“She's rather too exotic for my taste,” I answered.
“Do you know who she is?” asked the girl.
“They call her 'the Devil's wife'!” said John. “Let's go out and see if she's in the promenade.” ”

“ As Rowland acted almost invariably on the principle that dead men tell no tales, he caused all the passengers to be put to death, in detail, until it came the turn of Herrera. As he was about to be cast into the sea, his daughter sprang wildly forward, and kneeling before the cruel pirate captain, she beseeched him in such earnest and pathetic tones to spare her father's life, or let her die in his stead, that Rowland, fired by the voluptuousness of her extreme beauty, and perhaps touched by her tears, promised to spare her father on condition that she would become his wife. ”

“ Rowland's imagination followed her forth with an irresistible tremor into the world toward which she was rolling away, with her detested husband and her stifled ideal; but it must be confessed that if the first impulse of his compassion was for Christina, the second was for Prince Casamassima. Madame Grandoni acknowledged an extreme curiosity as to the secret springs of these strange doings: Casamassima's sudden dismissal, his still more sudden recall, the hurried private marriage. "Listen," said Rowland, hereupon, "and I will tell you something." ”

“ Surely if the good God [205] e'er sent happiness on earth, He did send it to my little lady and to his lordship. 'Twas at this time that Sir Rowland asked Mistress Marian to be his spouse. And 'twas even i' th' same spot where Lord Ernle had discovered his love for my little lady, that he asked her.
Again it was as though some one had smitten her—her face deadly white and the red line across her brow. She put out one hand to keep him from her, and let it rest on his shoulder, and she said, "Rowland, I love thee well, but no man will ever call me wife." ”

“ As soon as I was seated John turned to me, raising himself on one elbow. His face was ghastly and his lips trembled before he spoke.
“Frank,” says he, “it was I who stole Edith's pearls.”
“I know it,” I answered.
His eyes got wild. “What?” he cried. “How—how—does anybody else know it? How did you find out?”
“Lie down,” said I, “and keep quiet. I'll give you the whole yarn.”
John sank back against his pillows with a groan. I started in with the story, telling him everything except the names of Léontine and Ivan. Before I had finished, John's face changed for the better. ”