The Storyteller

New Zealand Tablet, 22 May 1919, Page 3

The Storyteller

<>»■—-—:—- THE WILD BIRDS OF KILLEEVY Rosa Mulholland. (By arrangement with Messrs. Burns and Oates, London.) (Continued.) CHAPTER XXIII.—FAN'S PROPOSAL. While Herr Harfenspieler lectured the signora over her painting, Fan and Captain Rupert continued their walk homeward through the woods. "The signora is terrible when she makes up her mind," Fan had said, laughing, and Rupert answered: "That is why you are afraid to say all you think hefore her. You half-promised to tell me more about yourself, if she were not by." "I should be glad to talk to anyone about my old friends and my long ago," said Fan. "Nobody here, but you, would listen to me." "Let me listen to you, then. I am longing to hear." Then Fan began her little history, and told him all she remembered about her childhood. Her simple recital fell on the ear of the man of the world less like the details of a real experience than like a tender idyll, the creation of a poet's fancy : and he became more in love with the speaker than ever. "Thank you for your beautiful confidence," he said, with a tremor in his voice and an unusual mist in his eyes. " 'Tis I who must thank you. It has done me good to be allowed to speak." From the review of her past. Captain Rupert passed quickly to the consideration of her future. "Do you intend to obey my uncle, and go upon the stage?" ho asked, anxiously. "I cannot but obey, he is so good to me. Besides, 1 have a reason of my own." "For becoming a public singer?" "Yes." "You desire the excitement, the freedom?" said Captain Wilderspin, regretfully: "Or you are willing to make a fortune?" "None of these motives are anything like mine, though it is true I have a wish to be independent. But I will tell you what I hope. When I am a famous woman, as they say I am to be, Kevin will hear about it, and come to me." "Ah, of course, Kevin!" Captain Wilderspin frowned and then smiled. "And what do you think he will look like when he comes?" "Only like himself," said Fan, her eyes flashing. "I don't want him to look like anyone else." "I shall make her hate me!" thought Captain Rupert. "Yet I must try to awake her out of this childish dream. Forgive me," he said, gently. "Why do you attribute unkind meanings to me ? I cannot be your friend, I cannot accept your confidence, without asking you to look the truth in the face." "What truth? There is always something cruel when people talk like that about the truth." "I do not want to be cruel." Captain Wilderspin paused ; but he was a man of his word, and he had promised himself that Fanchea should be enlightened. ' He thought that having first ventured to wound her he might afterwards be able to cure and console her. "Will you answer me a few questions?" he said. "Kevin was 12 years older than you. He was a fullgrown young man when you saw him last?" "Yes." "Where had he received his education?" "At the school." "The village school of an obscure mountain district ? He had no other means than this of informing his mind?" - :

"No," faltered Fanchea, remembering that Kevin had always ''been dull at his books. "He was then an uneducated laborer toiling: at his spade and what do you think seven or eight years of such a life as you describe, fishing,} digging, , associating with his fellows,- have done .'for; him? ; You and he were once on an equality, and you had many pretty thoughts between you; but circumstances lifted you, a child, out of the state in which you were born, while they left him, a man, in his original condition. He has probably now got a peasant" wife and children, and, whatever he may have once promised to be, they have by this time dragged him down to the ordinary level of such husbands and fathers as dwell around them. Imagine his sun-burned face; features and expression coarsened by the years that have passed by since you saw it, his rough, clay-soiled hands, his rude brogue, his uncultivated manners and ignorance of all the refinements of living. Believe me, if you ever become a famous woman, and he then comes, as he probably may, to claim you, you will not find him one with whom you could bear to associate."-> Fan had kept her gaze fixed on her companion's countenance from the beginning of this speech, and as he proceeded her eyes became darkened and her mouth set with grief. When he finished, a thrill of pain passed over her face, and she turned away quickly to hide her tears. "Fan, little Fan," said Rupert, tenderly, "I have hurt you ; I have made you weep. Forgive me, listen to me " "Go away," said Fan, angrily. "You have broken my heart." A great sob swallowed her last word : and Captain Wilderspin thought from her distress that her mind had assented to the truths of the picture he had drawn. "I cannot go away," he said, "without your forgiveness. I would not have hurt you but in the hope of setting you free." "Free!" cried Fan, piteously. "Of all that is beautiful and bright in my life !" "Of an illusion that is threatening to overwhelm you with the bitterest disappointment. Fanchea, listen. to me and do not speak as if there was no other love for you but what lives in a dream. A hundred such Kevins could not love you as T love you. Nay, do not look so astonished. You must have seen it in my face and heard it in my voice. You must have known long ago how I have loved you." "I knew that you liked me very much," said Fanchea, abashed, and forgetting her anger, "but not So much as this." "More than this; more than you can imagine, you simple child : more than I can prove to you, except by a life-long devotion. I would not bribe you to be my wife: but look round you, Fanchea, and see the home that I am able to provide for your future. You need not appear upon the hated stage, where I have always felt that I could not bear to see you; but you shall go wherever you fancy to go, and do whatever you please. To make you happy shall be the object of my life, and I shall be amply repaid if you will only give me the best love of your pure little heart." Captain Rupert's manner and words became more impassioned as he saw the glow of surprise gradually fade in Fanchea's face and change into the chill of regret. As he finished speaking and stood by her in extreme agitation waiting for her answer the girl raised her eyes wistfully to his. She was deeply touched ; grateful for his tenderness, and amazed at his devotion. Yet in spite of the warmth of feeling he had aroused, there was something that warned her to keep herself apart.

“You are very good to me,” she said, humbly; “very kind. But it would not be right.” “Why would it not be right?” “Because I want to find—my friends.” - She would not mention Kevin again after what had been said about him. “If I were to —do ds you wish, I should have to give them up. They would be nothing to you ; and if I were ever to meet them, you would be ashamed of them.” -y ;.y Ak "

~~^*^'Sq far from that, I promise you, on my soul, that I will give you every assistance in seeking them. I will make it my duty to find out that obscure mountain you call Killeevy, and we will visit it together arid know all that is to. be known - about ; ; your friends. If Kevin is in the world we will bring him to the front, and I will set no limit to the bounties you shall bestow upon him and his." , **- - '..-V;, .-',-•■ V--Fan's eyes widened and shone while her ears took in this tempting promise, and her eyes fixed on Captain Rupert's face assured her of the earnestness of his meaning. But at this interesting moment an interruption occurred; the signora's silver ringlets appeared streaming on the breeze ; the signora, with a face full of dismay, was seen coming rapidly towards them. Forewarned as she was, she had perceived from a distance that some unusual conversation was being held, and stood breathless and, agitated between her charge and Lord Wilderspin's heir. "Oh, heaven!" she thought, looking from one to the other, "something serious has been said. I am late." Her looks were so wild that Fan forgot everything else in anxiety for her condition. "Has anything dreadful happened?" she asked, throwing a supporting arm round her little friend. "I do not know — hope not," stammered the signora. "Herr Harfenspieler is here, and Lord Wilderspin has returned." "They are not quarrelling?" said Captain Rupert with the hint of a smile. He had begun to suspect the cause of the lady's wildness. "No, Captain Wilderspin; it is not their way," said the signora, recovering her dignity. "They are not ill?" asked Fanchea. "No," said Mamzelle : "nothing is the matter with them, except that one wants his pupil and the other his nephew and heir." She fixed her eyes on Captain Rupert, as she uttered the last words with emphasis; but he did not wither up or sink into the earth. * e> "And this is what you were coming to tell us," he said, smiling. "And you ran so fast that you lost your breath. It was not wise of you, signora. You have made yourself unwell. Be good enough to take my arm that 1 may support you to the house." The signora groaned, but acquiesced : and Fan followed musingly, with her eyes on the ground. A pleasant, social evening followed. Our friends met at dinner, Lord Wilderspin's burly form at the head of his board. Captain Rupert was in high spirits, and his lordship looked with surprise at his whilom, languid nephew. Herr Harfenspieler, glad of the return of his old friend, had almost forgotten his momentary uneasiness about his pupil, and Mamzelle, seeing Fanchea so quiet and undisturbed, hoped that no great harm had been done after all. Only the old lord himself noticed a new and indescribable expression in Fanchea's face. "What have you been doing to this girl?" he said, fiercely, to Herr Harfenspieler. "You have been working her too hard." "Not so," said Herr Harfenspieler, thinking of the lost lesson of the morning. "She is looking pale; and as old as myself," said his lordship, glaring round upon everybody. The looks of tenderness centred upon her from all sides were quite what his lordship desired for his protegee, and considered by him a part of the good fortune he had provided for her; yet, as his eye went from one to another of the faces at the board, he was startled by something in that of his nephew which he had no way expected to see ; and he in his turn surprised that gentleman by leaning across the table and saying in an undertone: j "This is only a child, do you see, Captain Wilderspin !'' ■ The brusque: words and scowl neither disconcerted nor annoyed Captain Rupert, nor did they make him smile. He returned his uncle's fierce glance with a meaning look that seemed to say he knew all the circumstances and had .thoroughly made up his mind.

No one was aware of this by-play but themselves, for the signora and her pupil were attending to Heir Harfenspieler, who had improved the occasion by delivering a lecture upon idleness. In the drawing-room, after dinner, the signora saw Fan flitting up and down in the twilight between the great windows, and noticed the pale, perplexed, half-frightened look in her face which had caught the attention of his lordship. "My child," she said, "there is something strange about you. You look as if you had got a shock." "So I have, Mamzelle." "What, can it have been since the morning?" said the signora, in great agitation. "I hope Captain Wilderspin has not been saying anything foolish. Military men are so peculiar." "He is very good, but I am greatly surprised. He wants me to marry him, Mamzelle." The signora gave a litle shriek. "You would not like it?" said Fan, tremulously. "Like it ! My dear, do you know what you are saying? The idea is simple madness. You arc only a poor protegee of his lordship, and he is Lord Wilderspin's heir." "Then it really could not be?" said Fan, with a long sigh of relief. Mamzelle mistook the sigh for one of pain, and her kind heart smote her. "How dare he be so cruel?" she murmured. "My love, is it possible your happiness is in his hands?" "I do not know," said Fan, musingly, and with an air of trouble. "It cannot be —if what you say be true." "Oh, me, oh, me! What a mess we have made of our affairs !" "Do not grieve, Mamzelle; indeed, I am quite satisfied." "Good, obedient child!" murmured the signora, a little disappointed in spite of herself. She could not have expected to find her wild gipsy maiden so tame in a matter where her affections were concerned. "I must not leave you under a mistake. If I were to marry Captain Wilderspin, it would only be for the sake of something he promised me." The signora's heart grew cold. "A title, diamonds, or what other gew-gaw?" she asked, severely. "Nothing of that kind," said Fan, with a sad little smile, "and yet something that you would not approve of. I will not vex you by even mentioning it." Herr Harfenspieler here appearing, the conversation was at an end : and Fan's voice was soon pealing through the room, and her heart unburdening itself of some of its longings and perplexities by means of the utterances of her song. Lord Wilderspin and his nephew were meanwhile in earnest conversation in the garden. "I think you hardly understood me just now," the old lord had begun, trying to be patient and reasonable. "It is my desire that everyone in my house be kindly inclined to that young girl. But there are limits to be observed. There are certain lines to be drawn." "You mean that no man is to dare to fall in love with her?" "Exactly. Such conduct would be inexcusable." "Why?" "Whywhy—why? What a question to ask. The world is full of reasons why. Because, in the first place, she is only a child." "A girl of 17 cannot long remain a child, no matter how peculiarly she may have been brought up, no matter how simple she may be in herself." "I intend her to remain a child till it pleases me to introduce her to the world." "Suppose Nature has undermined your plans; is it fair to rob her of her woman's inheritance of love?" "Her woman's rubbish! Confound it, Rupert! To think of you coming to talk to me like this you who were always the first to sneer, who professed to have no belief in that kind of thing," "I believe in it now. A child (as you say) has

taught me. Excuse me, uncle, fox- trying your patience so severely. Ido not wonder you are surprised; I have been astonished at myself." "You mean to say that you have fallen in love with this girl, who has been practising her music in my house?" "I am determined to make her my wife." "You audacious jackanapes!" "Come, come, uncle; a man is not a jackanapes at 35." "He may be a jackanapes at 100. How dare you come here to rob me behind my back?" His lordship put his hands behind him and glared from under his eyebrows at his nephew. "You needn't try to. frighten me," said Rupert, good-humoredly. "You have spoiled me too long and too often for that. I have deserved your anger, and you have always forgiven me. This time there is no fault upon my head." "When I advised you to marry, you would not do it," burst forth his lordship. "Why have you not married your Lady Mauds and Miss Julias?" ".Because they were —Fan," said Rupert, smiling. "lie silent, sir: you are most impertinent," said Lord Wilderspin, striding about. "Now, unclej do be quiet, and let us talk. I want to marry and settle down according to your wishes*; and the woman I have chosen is the 'child' who is dear to yourself. You love her as an old man, and I as a young man, and that is the only difference between us. You would have her obey you that you may ride out a hobby, and I would devote my life to making her happy. There are women enough to sing for us in the theatres. I advise you to let me have my own way." "An Irish beggar-girl, a gipsy's foundling, is to be installed here as the future Lady Wilderspin!" stormed his lordship. "I will take her out of the place, that you may not be troubled with the sight, of her again." "You shall do nothing of the kind, sir. I tell you this is no mere case of a hobby, as you think. I cannot have her taken from me. I love her as a child of my own." "Treat her accordingly, then," said Captain Wilderspin, laying his hand pleadingly on the old man's arm. "Ungrateful, good-for-nothing, covetous rascal!" shouted his lordship, shaking oil the hand and striding away in towering wrath towards the house. Captain Rupert looked after him and smiled, and then lit his cigar. "Too hot to last," he said, complacently. "His bark is always worse than his bite." The frightened look had gone from Fanchea's face when she went up to her room for the night. Further conversation with the signora had assured her that Lord Wilderspin would never consent to her marrying his nephew, and the conviction brought relief to her mind. Captain Rupert pleased her; his tender homage charmed her girlish pride she admired his soldierly bearing, and had felt him younger and more companionable than the other persons who surrounded her. Yet she was very well aware that she did not want to marry him. The scheme dear to her heart was . the discovery of the lost, and she would keep herself free for that enterprise. A promise of help in her search had for a moment shaken her purpose, and she had asked herself whether she could not accept this means of attaining her end. But a word had made everything clear. Her benefactor must not be displeased. Such thoughts having raced to a conclusion through her head, she flung open her windows and extinguished her light and moved softly about her chamber dancing the gipsy's dance. . Snapping her little fingers, poising herself on her toes, she whirled from one end of the room to another, singing gaily under her breath that she was free:

ft M' Free, free, to fly over the set 3*lll Mil S ..\ Like the birds that wiere ; cousins %|I ffl Of Kevin and me ! " .•■ Her head at last on the pillow, she lay, with her face to the east, where she could see the "breaking dawn through her open windows,, hear the first whisper of life coining back to the world. ; The landrail sent up its shrill cry from the meadows below, harsh yet sweet; delicious from its association with the peace of the summer night. A deep quietude was in the air, and the fragrance of multitudes of roses came in and hung round Franchea in her bed, where she. kept warbling forth little couplets and sending, - them through her open window, across the darkened woods and fields. The nightingales had clone singing, and there was no bird awake to dispute with her. She had hoped to sing herself to sleep, but suddenly down came the thought that she had been trying to sing and dance out of countenance. "An uneducated laborer toiling with his spade, with a peasant wife and children — will not find him one with whom you bear to associate." As the terrible words came ringing through her mind, Fan's heart gave a wild throb, and she buried her face in the pillows. It was no longer that she was angry at the words having been said, but she- had begun to feel afraid they might be just. - ; Lost in a dream of her childhood's ideal, silent upon a subject that was displeasing to all around her, she had never confronted the fear of such a possibility before. But now she admitted that there was more than a possibility that such a disastrous state of things as had been pictured by Captain Rupert might be true. Shy, slow, without a cultivated friend, how could Kevin have worked himself higher in the scale of education and refinement? What proof had she that he had come out into the world in search of her, had been, wrought up into something nobler than the noblest of the earth ? Living at Killeevv, he would naturally do as others did, and. go on earning- his bread as his father had done before him. , Could it be that he had forgotten all his early aspirations or ; had he developed into such another as Shawn^Rua^ (called the -learned man)? Or even if he had followed her (according to her faith), roamed for her sake out into the world's wide high-road, ; could she feel sure that, even in this case, he had been met by a happier fate ? How could he have procured any but the rudest tasks to do: who would have given him the advantages that had been so freely poured out upon her ? Travel-soiled, worn, weary, and poor, she had often .pictured him to herself: but coarse and uncultivated, never. Oh! why had she not been left upon the mountain among her friends, to grow up and remain a peasant to the end of her day? She would thus never have been aware of anything wanting in those she loved, whereas, now, she realised that she might live to be only more unhappy through 'attaining the desires of her heart. ;.-.-: *r-3r-j Sensitively and artistically alive to refinement, she was appalled at the probabilities presented to her. Sitting up on her pillow, and staring-at the brightening dawn, her eyes grew i-ed with weeping, and her heart felt like to break. Where was the use of the day if Kevin's beautiful soul were a dream? What was the object of the existence of such a. creature as herself, if he were to prove one with whom \ she could not bear to associate '"?&:'. ,-;. .... (To be continued.) ;' ?