The Storyteller THE INCOMPATIBLES

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 42, 20 October 1904, Page 23

The Storyteller THE INCOMPATIBLES

1( (Concluded from last week.) The next morning was spent in roaming about the place, in company with a half-grown mulatto girl whom Cousin! Rachel had deputed to wait on her young mistress. *In -the afternoon, her Usual siesta finished, the old ladjy tapped on the door of Dora's room. ' I iam going to show you everything that belonged to Winston w-hen he was liftle,' said. l 1 know that will please you more than anything else I could do fo>r you. I want, you to get acquainted with it, s|o that when ho comes you will be able to ronew old memories witjh him. He will enjoy it much better now,' Dora smiled as> she took the small withered hand in heirs. She felt it incumbent upon her to Say something. ' You lo\e Winston very much, don't you, cousin Rachel ?' she remarked. 1 Love him ! I adore him. Everybody here docs. No ane could help loving Winston.' She looked radi-antlv up into Dora's face. The yqunsq wife looked as radiantly down upon her. She had always been susceptible to the moodst of. others, anJd who could do aufc^ht, by word or glance or opportune silence,' to sadden the thoughts of this dear eld lady, in whose eves she was a lo\ed and happy wife? No : lei that come later, when it must , for the present slie too was going to he happy 1 First, I am going to show you the room Winston had when he was little. Really, tiiiere were two rooms, one opening into the other. This was the nursery. It would still do for one.' The room was filled with games and toys of cvciy ki/tid. A hobbyhorse stood upon the broad hearth awaiting a rider. A .low scat ran around two sides, close to the broad windows, which commanded a charming view of the surrounding woods and fields. ' See ' here is e\cn the little doll that Winston loved,' 1 said Cousin Rachel, pointing to a battered specimen of dollhood, attired in a red diess and white apron and seated m a little rockingchair. ' lie used to call it his' wife He thought it the most beautiful thing in existence. How I ha\e lauphed behind his back when he would caie.ss the iitiicukAis thing ! Poor doll ' sine has sat there lonely and unloved for many a year. Winst'on has something dearer now.' I3(or a said not a word ' Doesn't it touch you to the bottom of your heart to see and hear about these little things 9> continued Rachel. "Yes, it does,' answered Dora in a low voice. Cousin Rachel opened another door. ' This is where he slept,' stie said. ' This room is smaller, of course ; but, it is very pleasant.' And so it was. A child might have slept in the little white bed the night before. Thin, ruffle/d fash curtains partially oomeeaiwd the windows 1 . In tihe closet two small sailor hats were on the shelves, a pair of Knee-trousers hung insirie thp door. On a table between the windows were a Latin grammar, an old geography, and twoi or three well-worn story-books. 1 " The Swiss Family Robinson " an f d " Ceril and His' Dog," ' '•-ad Cousin Rachel, opening them. ' He did love those bonks— whom he was lititle He used to read therm over and over again. ' And here, on the lower shelf of the table, are his copybooks — from the very beginning And this is his first French dictation hook. ' Airaons nous los uas les autres.' Dear child ! he took Ihat for his motto , and he has always lived up to it. He was never anything but kind to everybody ' Dora took the boo-k from her hand. On the front page, in large thai act ers, she read the words aloud, translating them : ' Let us love one another.' They seemed 4:o ring in her ears — she was growing diz7y. ' Let) iis go into the garden,' she said. 'I do not feel very well.' •■ Yes, yes, of courf-e I thought you peemed silent, mv dear. Yew are rcaHv more quiet than I imagined. Winston had given me the fdea that you were very lively.' ' I used to I)<\ T tihink,' said Dora, slowly.' 1 But) I niay have chpintred in that lespect since lry marriage. No doubt I have.' Tney went downstairs and into the garden. Cousin Raichell led 'the way to a miniature lake at the lower end. They seated themselves on a bench near it. Presently* two beautiful swans sailed out from beneath the shade of some overhanging bushes. ' Ther& r are Jupiter and Juno,' said Cousin Rachol. 1 They have been in the lake for a great many years :

long before Winston was bo/%.;| 4 He gave"-4hem"^^|(ose 'names— when he; was little was about^elev'nn, ' I think— just after, he had began study mytiJology^Once he fell ink* the water oveik there, undei fcha't ')tree, where it is deepest. lie was nearly drowned.- I shall never, forget it. Scipio heard him call and jumped in. Tho poor little fellow was so brave about it.' Dora got up. ' Let us walk,' she said—' unless yoti-are tbo<"tired, Cousin Rachel.' 1 No. When I walk slowly it does not- itire me. Shall we go down to the edge of the wood ? ' ;~; ~ ' Come, loan on me,' said J)ora. 'It is so nice to ' have s y6u. here,'; answ'ejrekjTlhe old lady , ' and to know that you ace Wfnston'l wife ! Do you see that bench yonder ? ' she .went--on. r -as they nearocl the first group of trees. ' Winston always came hcie to read in summer when he was little. Just behind it* between fo-ur sycamores which fornt;,a square, he made what he used td call ills-," study garden. '■*' Violets grew there attd lilies of , the valley., If yod, had been here la^st mionth you would have seen them. Ah, there a,"c a few violets left ! I am going to gather them for you.' Dora loaned back on the green bench. In a few moments Oousin Rachel came to her w,itl^' litftlfc^bpuquet of the s-weet-scented purple blosscpi^O' - 'U' 1 Let me pin them on your boso,m,' khejgaid^^t'ijow" delighted Winston would be to see -them- thete ivcfpifren of, the flowers he planted when he was little"!' '-■'£- y ' J <' The next morning they visited the stabies. ' Here is Boniface ! ' said Cousin Rachel,,, stroking an old giey donkey that stood quietly nibbling grass. ' Has Winston never told you about Boniface, the donkey he loved so, when he w,as little.' ' And so they continued, 'step by stelp, through the stables, to the negro cabins, where the people all inquired for Mars Winston with the tenderest affection, especially the old men and women who had Known, and loved him ' when he was little.' And by degrees". Dora learned how careful of their conduct he had always been, and still was ; of the sweets for the children and the bright bandanas and tobacco for the elders that came regularly every Christmas to Lotogwoofd, addressed to each by name. Then they wemfc across the plantation to the cemeteiy where his parents were btuied. A tombstone of dark granite had been placed at the head of each grave. Both weic caiefully tended ami enclosed by a heavy iron tence. 1 'i hey ha\e been dead a long time,' said Dora, bending over to read the inscriptions. ' When Winston was eleven his mother died,' answered Cousin Rachel , ' his father when he was fifteen. Let us sit here while I tell you abput them— something he would never do.' Dora readily consented ; and, seated on the sward at the foot of tihe graves, with, her arm around the young wife, Cousin Rachel went on : ' I am going to tell you because I think you ought to know. Winston's parents were eccentric, both of them. They were as good and honorable as it is possible for two persons to be, but they were not well mated—w ere not congenial. They realised this all too soon, amd, instead of q-uarrelling, derided to live practically apart. His father remained abroad a great deal-; when ho wjis here the mother visited about among h er relatives Both loved the hoy, their omly child ; but neither was so unjust as to wish to deprive the other of him Consequently he lived here alone with me for tho greater part of the time. He was very fortd of them, though, poor little fellow ' I tried -to make up to him all that his life lacked— when he was little. I ga\o him of my best, and he has returned it a,. v ujndred- l hfold. Oh, how happy I felt whence Wrote %vfc tjhfct he was about to be married. And ever since his letters have been full of you, my dear ; and it has rejoiced my poor old heait.' , ' t./ ' lie writes to you of me, then, Cdusrn "-Rachel ? ' asked Dora. 1 Always, always. You are his life.' I Poor Winston ! ' thought Dora v ,fi lifc-.ds* Jdtajgr of him to keep up the fiction of happiness^wfth -,thips noor old woman. He does not wish to grieve her' ■' doting heart.' II I tell you all this,' restjned Cousin Rachel, ' because, being 1 the child of sucii a marriage, and having been thus peculiarly situated, you must not be s\urp^ised if in some resipects he may be also a little eccentric, perhaps reserved, perhaps nervous, perhaps 1 eveh at times apparently self-absorbed and cold. I do not say that you have ever observed these things in ( hjm. „ . I hope a>nd believe marriage may have opened' for Him a vista of joy ?.nd content that his infancy and childhood unfortunately missed. But I have seem thefee things in him at times ; and although, as I said, you may not

have known them, they may still recur, under certain conditions. ' 'He is good— he is very good ! ' murmured Dora. ' Butr— you are right. 1 'He is sometimes — strange, then ? ' ' A little, sometimes — yes.' ' Well, dear, if it is so — whenever it is so — only remember that) he would be different if things had not been so — s*o— disagreeable — when he was little.' Dora pressed the wrinkled old hanti to her lips When she diew it away it was wet with her Iwurs 'Ho was so foud oi me always ! ' Cousin Rachel went on. 'At times, after his father or mother had gone, he would throw his arms about my neck and cling to me silently, as though he felt that here at least he could always find a loving heart— a home Once, after such an experience, I followed him to the nursery, fearing to iind him moping there. He war, standing by the window, that old red-oheoked doll in his arms. '•' Wufie," I heiard him sa£, '•' when we aire, grown upv\e shall g,o everywhere — together. We shall never be separated. We shall always live at home together— alw a> ■>, always ! ' He was tjoifr reserved aV>d silont, b,ut nncctionate to his heart's coic. And after that I knew — that he knew.' Daruness was falling, when the two women went in Had Cousin Rachel Wipef'ted anything, or was it only olut of the oxubc ance of her love for Winston that she had spoken 7 Dora never knew. But early next moming she wrote a long letter to her husband, and in it she folded a little bunch of violets. Three days Utcr he came to Longwood, and Doia met him at the station They have made tihe old Carolina plantation then permanent home Three beautiful chirdien— two shndv boys and a darling little girl— aie petted a,nd wpoih'd by Cousin Rachel. And they aie all as happy as thi> day; rs long.— 1 Aye Maria.'