Hearts Afire - By J. D. Rawden Page 0,6
daily bread.”
“Well, look now, it was not the bread-making I was thinking about. It was the love-making. A young girl should be wooed before she is married. You know how it is; and Charlotte, the little one, she thinks not of such a thing as love and marriage.”
“Who knows what thoughts are under brown locks? You'll have noticed madam that Charlotte has come more often than ordinary to Semple House lately?”
“That is so. It was because of Colonel Gordon's wife, who likes Charlotte. She is teaching her a new stitch in her crewel-work.”
“Hum-m-m! Mistress Gordon has likewise a new student, a very handsome lad. I have seen that he takes a deal of interest in the crewel-stitch likewise. And Sir Edward has seen it too,—for Sir Edward has set his heart on Charlotte,—and this afternoon there was a look passed between the young men I did not like. We'll be having a challenge, and two fools playing the fools for love.”
“I am glad you spoke, Elder. Thank you. I'll turn your words over in my heart.”
“As for Sir Edward, he's our little baron; and his mother and I would fain to keep him near us. Charlotte would be a welcome daughter to our old age, and well loved.”
Elder Van Heemskirk, in speaking of her as already marriageable, had given Joris Morgan a shock. It seemed such a few years since he had walked her to sleep at nights, cradled in his strong arms, close to his breast; such a little while ago when she toddled about the garden at his side, her plump white hands holding his big forefinger; only yesterday that she had been going to the school, with her spelling-book and Heidelberg in her hand. When his wife had spoken of Mistress Gordon, who was teaching Charlotte the new crewel-stitch, it had appeared to him quite proper that such a child should be busy learning something in the way of needlework. “Needlework” had been given as the reason of those visits, which he now remembered had been very frequent; and he was so absolutely truthful, that he never imagined the word to be in any measure a false definition.
Elder Van Heemskirk's implication had stunned Joris Morgan like a buffet. In his own room, he sat down on a big oak chest; and, as he thought, his mind slowly gathered. Joris knew that gay young suitors were coming and going about the Semple House, and he feared they would interfere with his own plans for keeping Charlotte near to him. The beautiful little young maiden had been an attraction which he was proud to exhibit, just as he was proud of his imported furniture, his pictures, and his library. He remembered that Elder Van Heemskirk had spoken with touching emphasis of his longing to keep his last son near home; but must he give up his darling Charlotte to further this plan?
“I like not it,” he muttered. “Good breeding for good breeding. That is the right way; but I will not make angry myself for so much of passion, so much of nothing at all to the purpose. That is the truth. Always I have found it so.”
Then Lysbet Morgan, having finished her second locking up, entered the room. She came in as one wearied and troubled, and said with a sigh, as she untied her apron, “By the girls' bedside I stopped one minute. Dear me! When one is young, the sleep is sound.”
“Well, then, they were awake when I passed,—that is not so much as one quarter of the hour,—talking and laughing; I heard them.”
“And now they are fast in sleep; their heads are on one pillow, and Charlotte's hand is fast clasped in Joanna's hand. The dear ones! Joris, the elder's words have made trouble in my heart. What did the man mean?”
“Who can tell? What a man says, we know; but only God understands what he means. But I will say this, Lysbet, and it is what I mean: if Elder Van Heemskirk will led my daughter into the way of temptation, then, for all that is past and gone, we shall be unfriends.”
“Give yourself no kommer on that matter, Joris. Why should not our Charlotte see what kind of people the world is made of? Have not some of our best maidens married into the Scottish set? And none of them were as beautiful as Charlotte. There is no harm, I think, in a girl taking a few steps up when she puts on