The Broad Highway - Jeffery Farnol (urban books to read .txt) 📗

o’ garters?” But here, meeting my eye, he shouldered his brooms hastily and moved off. And, after he had gone some dozen yards or so, he paused and turned.

“Very well then!” he shouted, “I ‘opes as you gets your ‘ead knocked off—ah!—an’ gets it knocked off soon!” Having said which, he spat up into the air towards me, and trudged off.

CHAPTER XIV

CONCERNING BLACK GEORGE’S LETTER

It was with a feeling of great relief that I watched the fellow out of sight; nevertheless his very presence seemed to have left a blight upon all things, for he, viewing matters with the material eye of Common-sense, had, thereby, contaminated them—even the air seemed less pure and sweet than it had been heretofore, so that, glancing over my shoulder, I was glad to see that Charmian had re-entered the cottage.

“Here,” said I to myself, “here is Common-sense in the shape of a half-witted peddling fellow, blundering into Arcadia, in the shape of a haunted cottage, a woman, and a man. Straightway our Pedler, being Common-sense, misjudges us—as, indeed, would every other common-sense individual the world over; for Arcadia, being of itself abstract and immaterial, is opposed to, and incapable of being understood by concrete common-sense, and always will be —and there’s the rub! And yet,” said I, “thanks to the Wanderer of the Roads, who built this cottage and hanged himself here, and thanks to a Highland Scot who performed wonderfully on the bagpipes, there is little chance of any common-sense vagrant venturing near Arcadia again—at least until the woman is gone, or the man is gone, or—”

Here, going to rub my chin (being somewhat at a loss), I found that I had been standing, all this while, the broom in one hand and the belt in the other, and now, hearing a laugh behind me, I turned, and saw Charmian was leaning in the open doorway watching me.

“And so you are the—the cove—with the white hands and the taking ways, are you, Peter?”

“Why—you were actually—listening then?”

“Why, of course I was.”

“That,” said I, “that was very—undignified!”

“But very—feminine, Peter!” Hereupon I threw the belt from me one way, and the broom the other, and sitting down upon the bench began to fill any pipe rather awkwardly, being conscious of Charmian’s mocking scrutiny.

“Poor—poor Black George!” she sighed.

“What do you mean by that?” said I quickly.

“Really I can almost understand his being angry with you.”

“Why?”

“You walked with her, and talked with her, Peter—like Caesar, ‘you came, you saw, you conquered’!”

Here I dragged my tinder-box from my pocket so awkwardly as to bring the lining with it.

“And—even smiled at her, Peter—and you so rarely smile!”

Having struck flint and steel several times without success, I thrust the tinder-box back into my pocket and fixed my gaze upon the moon.

“Is she so very pretty, Peter?”

I stared up at the moon without answering.

“I wonder if you bother her with your Epictetus and—and dry-as-dust quotations?”

I bit my lips and stared up at the moon.

“Or perhaps she likes your musty books and philosophy?”

But presently, finding that I would not speak, Charmian began to sing, very sweet and low, as if to herself, yet, when I chanced to glance towards her, I found her mocking eyes still watching me. Now the words of her song were these:

“O, my luve’s like a red, red rose, That’s newly sprung in June; O, my luve’s like the melodie That’s sweetly played in tune.”

And so, at last, unable to bear it any longer, I rose and, taking my candle, went into my room and closed the door. But I had been there scarcely five minutes when Charmian knocked.

“Oh, Peter! I wish to speak to you—please.” Obediently I opened the door.

“What is it, Charmian?”

“You dropped this from your pocket when you took out your tinder-box so clumsily!” said she, holding towards me a crumpled paper. And looking down at it, I saw that it was Black George’s letter to Prudence.

Now, as I took it from her, I noticed that her hand trembled, while in her eyes I read fear and trouble; and seeing this, I was, for a moment, unwontedly glad, and then wondered at myself.

“You—did not read it—of course?” said I, well knowing that she had.

“Yes, Peter—it lay open, and—”

“Then,” said I, speaking my thought aloud, “you know that she loves George.”

“He means you harm,” said she, speaking with her head averted, “and, if he killed you—”

“I should be spared a deal of sorrow, and—and mortification, and—other people would be no longer bothered by Epictetus and dry-as-dust quotations.” She turned suddenly, and, crossing to the open doorway, stood leaning there. “But, indeed,” I went on hurriedly, “there is no chance of such a thing happening—not the remotest. Black George’s bark is a thousand times worse than his bite; this letter means nothing, and—er—nothing at all,” I ended, somewhat lamely, for she had turned and was looking at me over her shoulder.

“If he has to ‘wait and wait, and follow you and follow you’?” said she, in the same low tone.

“Those are merely the words of a half-mad pedler,” said I.

“‘And your blood will go soaking, and soaking into the grass’!”

“Our Pedler has a vivid imagination!” said I lightly. But she shook her head, and turned to look out upon the beauty of the night once more, while I watched her, chin in hand.

“I was angry with you to-night, Peter,” said she at length, “because you ordered me to do something against my will—and I —did it; and so, I tried to torment you—you will forgive me for that, won’t you?”

“There is nothing to forgive, nothing, and—good night, Charmian.” Here she turned, and, coming to me, gave me her hand.

“Charmian Brown will always think of you as a—”

“Blacksmith!” said I.

“As a blacksmith!” she repeated, looking at me with a gleam in her eyes, “but oftener as a—”

“Pedant!” said I.

“As a pedant!” she repeated obediently, “but most of all as a—”

“Well?” said I.

“As a—man,” she ended, speaking with bent head. And here again I was possessed of a sudden gladness that was out of all reason, as I immediately told myself.

“Your hand is very small,” said I, finding nothing better to say, “smaller even than I thought.”

“Is it?” and she smiled and glanced up at me beneath her lashes, for her head was still bent.

“And wonderfully smooth and soft!”

“Is it?” said she again, but this time she did not look up at me. Now another man might have stooped and kissed those slender, shapely fingers—but, as for me, I loosed them, rather suddenly, and, once more bidding her good night, re-entered my own chamber, and closed the door.

But to-night, lying upon my bed, I could not sleep, and fell to watching the luminous patch of sky framed in my open casement. I thought of Charmian, of her beauty, of her strange whims and fancies, her swift-changing moods and her contrariness, comparing her, in turn, to all those fair women I had ever read of or dreamed over in my books. Little by little, however, my thoughts drifted to Gabbing Dick and Black George, and, with my mind’s eye, I could see him as he was (perhaps at this very moment), fierce-eyed and grim of mouth, sitting beneath some hedgerow, while, knife in hand, he trimmed and trimmed his two bludgeons, one of which was to batter the life out of me. From such disquieting reflections I would turn my mind to sweet-eyed Prudence, to the Ancient, the forge, and the thousand and one duties of the morrow. I bethought me, once more, of the storm, of the coming of Charmian, of the fierce struggle in the dark, of the Postilion, and of Charmian again. And yet, in despite of me, my thoughts would revert to George, and I would see myself even as the Pedler pictured me, out in some secluded corner of the woods, lying stiffly upon my back with glassy eyes staring up sightlessly through the whispering leaves above, while my blood soaked and soaked into the green, and with a blackbird singing gloriously upon my motionless breast.

CHAPTER XV

WHICH, BEING IN PARENTHESIS, MAY BE SKIPPED IF THE READER SO DESIRE

As this life is a Broad Highway along which we must all of us pass whether we will or no; as it is a thoroughfare sometimes very hard and cruel in the going, and beset by many hardships, sometimes desolate and hatefully monotonous, so, also, must its aspect, sooner or later, change for the better, and, the stony track overpassed, the choking heat and dust left behind, we may reach some green, refreshing haven shady with trees, and full of the cool, sweet sound of running waters. Then who shall blame us if we pause unduly in this grateful shade, and, lying upon our backs a while, gaze up through the swaying green of trees to the infinite blue beyond, ere we journey on once more, as soon we must, to front whatsoever of good or evil lies waiting for us in the hazy distance.

To just such a place am I now come, in this, my history; the record of a period which I, afterwards, remembered as the happiest I had ever known, the memory of which must remain with me, green and fragrant everlastingly.

If, in the forthcoming pages, you shall find over-much of Charmian, I would say, in the first place, that it is by her, and upon her, that this narrative hangs; and, in the second place, that in this part of my story I find my greatest pleasure; though here, indeed, I am faced with a great difficulty, seeing that I must depict, as faithfully as may be, that most difficult, that most elusive of all created things, to wit—a woman.

Truly, I begin to fear lest my pen fail me altogether for the very reason that it is of Charmian that I would tell, and of Charmian I understand little more than nothing; for what rule has ever been devised whereby a woman’s mind may be accurately gauged, and who of all those wise ones who have written hitherto —poets, romancers, or historians—has ever fathomed the why and wherefore of the Mind Feminine?

A fool indeed were I to attempt a thing impossible; I do but seek to show her to you as I saw her, and to describe her in so far as I learned to know her.

And yet, how may I begin? I might tell you that her nose was neither arched nor straight, but perfect, none the less; I might tell you of her brows, straight and low, of her eyes, long and heavy-lashed, of her chin, firm and round and dimpled; and yet, that would not be Charmian. For I could not paint you the scarlet witchery of her mouth with its sudden, bewildering changes, nor show you how sweetly the lower lip curved up to meet its mate. I might tell you that to look into her eyes was like gazing down into very deep water, but I could never give you their varying beauty, nor the way she had with her lashes; nor can I ever describe her rich, warm coloring, nor the lithe grace of her body.

Thus it is that