Broadcloth

“ Bess had donned her fluffy brown tam-o-shanter and stood on the veranda. Shadows of evening were silently gathering in the valley, and yet she could see that beyond the hill the sun still shone. “That hill looks rather high,” she said briskly, “but I do so long to see what lies beyond it. I think I’ll go up the road and take a glimpse before the sun sets. Brother won’t miss me and I’ll only be gone a minute.”
As she walked she stooped to pick some shining butter-cups, and to thrust in her hair waxen leaves of the Oregon grape, with its bright yellow clusters of blossoms. ”

“ There, in the midst of mail-clad soldiers, sitting the saddle with the ease of the perfect horseman, sat—his princess, Aliénor herself!
Slipping from the saddle, he kissed her hand. Aliénor laughed, and the sound was like the rippling of a brook. She rode astride, as was women's custom then; her wide cloak was of blue velvet, which well set off her bright cheeks and glowing golden hair, caught up in a net of twisted silver. Cercamon, himself and his beast plastered with the mud of the Sologne, made a sorry sight.
“When Cercamon is hard pressed, his duchess herself can not sit idle at home!” ”

“ Moreover, had it not been wet weather, could he have held an umbrella over Elizabeth's head when he met her in the eucalyptus wood, and they walked among the naked trunks, while the long, loose, pale foliage waved like dishevelled hair in the rain, and the pungent asphodels grew thick about their feet in the red earth? And when, by-and-by, the clouds disperse again, and there comes a fair day, bracketed between three or four foul ones—the usual Algerian proportion—it has grown quite natural to all three that he should sit opposite to them in their drives ”

“ Today as she came into the sick-room, all rosy and fresh after her ride, he looked at her with admiration. She had never looked half so charming to him before; the simple white dress made her girlish, and the bunch of yellow blossoms thrust into the loose knot of brown hair, just behind her ear, gave her a saucy air. She was brushing the hair from her brow as she approached the chair in which he was sitting.
“I envy you your ride and the fresh air, Miss Fletcher. ”

“ The object of the mob-cap is to approximate my age to Roger's, and to assure all such as the velvet and fur leave in doubt, that I am entitled to take my stand among the portly ranks of British matrons.
"Algy was right," say I, soliloquizing aloud, as I stand before the long cheval glass, with a back-hair glass in one hand, by whose aid I correct my errors in the profile, three-quarters or back view; "mine is not the most hopeless kind of ugliness. It is certainly modifiable by dress." ”

“ Just then she saw Mr. Davis lifting his hat to her, both in recognition and farewell, as he walked to a man holding a beautiful saddle horse. The Indian agent glanced back at the tall, graceful girl, with her pretty traveling dress and hat of brown. She could not know that he noted with [16] what an air she walked, head and shoulders erect, chin up aggressively, nor that he thought:
“Gad! but she is great! And what a treat after three years of Indians. I shall certainly see you often, Miss Fletcher.”
“Do you see him anywhere, James?” Bess was all animation.
“West? No, sister. ”

“ Davis, I have become so fascinated with tales of the cattle country that I feel almost as enthusiastic as my brother,” said Bess, brushing the stray lock of fluffy brown hair out of her eye. “Do you think,” she continued, “that I shall love the West as he does?”
“I hope so,” said Davis, with a swift glance.
“I already know what a cayuse is, and also a lariat, though I am not so sure as regards a teepee; still, if I remember correctly, it is something good to eat.” ”

“ Darkness drapes the village. It comes from the whole long line of Jura, riding its troop of purple shadows--slowly curtaining out the world. For the carpenter's house stands by itself, apart. Perched upon a knoll beside his little patch of vineyard, it commands perspective. From his upper window Rogers saw and remembered....
High up against the fading sky ridges of limestone cliff shine out here and there, and upon the vast slopes of Boudry--l'immense geant de Boudry--lies a flung cloak of forest that knows no single seam. ”

“ We have no means at present of knowing whether such cloaks are worn by the coast natives between Point Barrow and Kotzebue Sound, but one was worn by one of the Nunata ́ñmiun who were at Nuwŭk in the autumn of 1881.
Fig. 66.—Pattern of man’s cloak.
Rain-frocks.—
The rain-frock (silû ́ña) is made of strips of seal or walrus intestines about 3 inches broad, sewed together edge to edge. This material is light yellowish brown, translucent, very light, and quite waterproof. In shape the frock resembles a man’s frock, but the hood comes well forward and fits closely round the face. ”

“ She wore a dark dress, well but simply made. Round her neck hung one of those long gold chains so much worn at one time by the French bourgeoisie—a chain which had no doubt once belonged to her sainted mother. She wore her watch in her belt; a brooch containing a lock of white hair—that of a beloved father, most probably—fastened her neat lace collar, and through the meshes of the silk mittens that covered her long hands might be seen her wedding ring.
As René was leaving, this virtuous creature remarked, 'The house is a very quiet one, sir. ”

“ She could feel the earth begin to tremble from the rush of pounding hoofs and saw the ominous cloud rolling nearer and nearer. There was no time to flee; no chance to reach the trees; only now could she rush to that projecting boulder and cast her body close against it in the hope that the frantic steers might not crumble it in pieces in their mad onslaught.
What was that she heard? She hesitated an instant as she neared the rock whose unpromising shelter she sought. Surely she heard someone calling her name. “Bess—Bess,” the agonized tones came to her ears! ”

“ She brushed her wet cheeks with her sleeve in her haste to appear nonchalant to the approaching horsemen, whom she could hear hastening after her. To her dismay, she discovered that her immaculate sleeve was now all grimy and dust-streaked and knew that her face too must be streaked with dirt. Luckily she had just reached a stream of clear, cold water, and she slipped off her horse and was already bathing her face when Henry West reached her. ”

“ The people about Boscastle grew accustomed to the sight of those two solitary women, clad in dark cloth ulsters, with close-fitting felt hats, that defied wind and weather, armed with sturdy umbrellas, tramping over fields and commons, by hilly paths, through the winding valley where the stream ran loud and deep after the autumn rains, on the cliffs above the wild grey sea—always avoiding as much as possible all beaten tracks, and the haunts of mankind. ”

“ He just said it, swallowing his breath with a gulp upon the unfinished sentence. But he said it—somewhere else, and not here in the twilight street of little Bourcelles. For his sight swam somehow far away, and he was giddy with the height. The roofs of the houses lay in a sea of shadow below him, and the street wound through them like a ribbon of thin lace. The tree-tops waved very softly in a wind that purred and sighed beneath his feet, and this wind was a violet little wind, that bent them all one way and set the lines and threads of gold a-quiver to their fastenings. ”

“ Would her hair never go up properly? Such thumbs for fingers! Where on earth were her shoes? Everything else was out of place!
“I will put on my ‘dear’ little dress,” she thought, as she drew from its corner her treasure. Pale yellow crepe, soft, silken, crepy, with knots and loops of brilliant orange-colored velvet. In her hair she fastened a tiny golden butterfly, whose gauzy wings swayed with her every movement. Tiny golden slippers peeped from beneath her gown, and amber beads gleamed through the folds of lace about her throat. ”

“ At the time I quitted England it was the fashion for ladies to wear red cloaks in the winter,—and a charming fashion it was: the red or scarlet seen at a distance lighted up and warmed the scenery;—it took from a winter’s day half its dulness. The poor people, who always imitate the dress of those above them, wore red, which to the last retained a gay and warm appearance, however old or threadbare. ”

“ The sun makes his almost nude body gleam like burnished copper and dazzles the beads upon his belt and bracelets. A large war bonnet of weasel skins and eagle feathers, [156] with two curved buffalo horns, covers his head and falls down his back till it nearly touches the ground. Bells tinkle upon his moccasins and at his wrists. As he steps out from among the others, cries of approval are heard upon all sides, and Bess knows that he must be some extraordinary Indian. Turning to West she asked who the Indian was, who was about to dance, and what the dance was to be. ”

“ They passed no villages; for a hall that has to house many men must stand alone amid the wide fields and pasture lands needed to supply its occupants with food. The cocks were crying their first challenge from distant hamlets when Hengist’s division caught the loom of the Jutish palisade, a deeper shadow against the night, a little down the road. ”

“ The occupant a young man, evidently a workman and somewhat sickly if one could judge from his complexion—turned around from some tinkering he was engaged in and met the intruder fairly, face to face. If his jaw fell, it seemed to be from admiration. No other emotion would have so lighted his eye as he took in the others proportions and commanding features. No dress—Brotherson was never seen in any other than the homeliest garb in these days—could make him look common or akin to his surroundings. ”

“ And also there's a little star-- So white, a virgin's it must be;-- Perhaps the lamp my love in heaven Hangs out to light the way for me. ''Song'', THEOPHILE MARZIALS. In this corner of Bourcelles the houses lie huddled together with an air of something shamefaced; they dare not look straight at the mountains or at the lake; they turn their eyes away even from the orchards at the back. They wear a mysterious and secret look, and their shoulders have a sly turn, as though they hid their heads in the daytime and stirred about their business only after dark. ”

“ Followed by his own scanty escort of ten mounted men-at-arms and forty archers, the Earl of Ross rode, unwelcomed, through the streets of Kinlochan. Contrary to the wont of folk whose town is visited by a king's deputy, the people had not assembled in the square to witness the spectacle and the trial. At every house-door, however, and at every street-corner, men were waiting in grim and ominous silence. ”

“ It will be the first real home I have ever known—nearly all my life has been spent at school. Dear me! I expect you think I should have unlimited knowledge,” she added lightly.
She gazed with interest about her. There stood the large, square, white house, with its wide porches and many windows, within a stone’s throw of the deep, blue water of Flathead Lake. Up the hill a short distance from the house in a clump of willows was a magnificent spring, whose cool, crystal water was made to flow down to the house and into the corral. ”

“ As they lounged down the principal street Ernest was struck with the change in the appearance of the crowd16 which thronged one side of the footway, between the bisecting cross-streets. The hard and anxious faces of the world’s workers which had filled the pavement in the morning had vanished, and in their stead were the flowerets of fashion, the gilded youth of the land, the butterflies of society, the fair faces of daintily attired girls, the unworn features of those ornamental human types which comprise no toilers, whatever may be the proportion of spinsters. ”

“ Turning so as to glance over her shoulder, Bess wished that the waiting might soon be ended.
She arose from the flat rock upon which she had been resting and began pacing nervously back and forth. Snatches of verses she said aloud, then some strain of a song floated spasmodically across the range, too wide to send back an echo. The moon, with its brief consolation, [179] had gone behind the horizon, and the night was rapidly growing darker. A qualm of fear filled the girl’s heart, as a coyote’s shrill, hungry cry rent the air. ”

“ Clearer and louder increased the sound, as now through mouldy leaves and dark thickets, and under decayed logs and insect-burrowed moss, she kept a course, until presently, over a fallen tree, she saw a Brooklet, larger, wider, and evidently much older than herself, which, on her near approach, ran by the fallen tree's side, and said, "Good morning, sister: what is so delicate a being, as you seem to be, doing in this dark forest?" ”

“ But not having yet completed our description of the charming Bordelaise we must add that she possessed a rich southern complexion, fine sparkling black eyes, shaded by long dark eye-lashes, and over-arched by jetty brows, and that her raven hair was combed back and gathered in a large roll over her smooth forehead, which had the five points of beauty complete. ”

“ The rest, with their ponies and the steers, were clambering up the steep incline of the bank and were entirely oblivious to the danger of their companion, their bodies, all dripping, gleaming like burnished copper in the dazzling sunshine. Springing upon their ponies they rode hurriedly to the approaching ferry, to wrap their naked bodies in the blankets which Fletcher was bringing across. Only West was conscious of the peril of the one Indian, except those on the ferry who had seen the struggle, and Bess, who had ridden Mauchacho down to where West was standing. ”