Pearl of Pearl Island | Page 9

regret at
opportunities missed;--to be dwelt upon for days and nights with
alternate hope and misgiving, with the rapturous recalling of every tone
of the sweet voice, of every word it had uttered, of every gracious
gesture, and every most minute and subtle change in the sweetest face
and the frankest and most charming eyes in the world.
VI

Their acquaintance had blossomed thus far, when a dire disaster
happened and justified all his fears.
He ran gaily up the steps of Lady Elspeth's house one afternoon,
brimming with hope that kindly fortune might bring Margaret that way
that day, and was hurled into deepest depths of despair by old Hamish
as soon as he opened the door.
"Ech, Mr. Graeme!" said the old man, with his grizzled old face tuned
to befitting concern. "Her leddyship's awa' to Inverstrife at a moment's
notice. She had a tailegram late last night saying the little leddy--the
Countess, ye ken--was very bad, and would she go at once. And she
and Jannet were off by the first train this morning. They aye send for us,
ye ken, when anything by-ordinar's to the fore. It's the little leddy's first,
ye understand, and ye'll mind that her own mother died two years ago."
"Well, well! I'm sorry you've had such an upsetting, Hamish. And
there's no knowing when Lady Elspeth will return, I suppose?"
"It a' depends on the little leddy, Mr. Graeme. Her leddyship will stay
till everything's all right, ye may depend upon that. She told me to give
you her kindest regairds and beg you to excuse her not writing. They
were all on their heads, so to speak, as ye can understand."
"Yes, of course. Well, we must just hope the little lady will pull
through all right. If I don't hear from Lady Elspeth I will call now and
again for your latest news."
"Surely, sir. Jannet'll be letting me know, if her leddyship's too busy.
Miss Brandt was here about hauf an hour ago," he added, with
unmoved face;--to think of any man, even so ancient a man as old
Hamish, being able to state a fact so great as that with unmoved face!
And there was actually no sign of reminiscent and lingering after-glow
perceptible in him!--but Graeme was not at all sure that there was not a
veiled twinkle away down in the depths of his little blue-gray eyes.
"Ah! Miss Brandt has been here! She would be surprised too----"

"She was that, sir,--and a bit disappointed, it seemed to me----"
Yes, there was a twinkle in the old fellow's eyes! Oh, he knew, he knew
without a doubt. Trust old Hamish for not missing much that was to the
fore. He and his old wife, Jannet Gordon, had been in Lady Elspeth's
service for over forty years, ever since her leddyship married into the
family, and Lady Elspeth trusted them both implicitly and discussed
most matters very freely with them. The dilatations of those three
shrewd old people, concerning things in general, and the men and
women of their acquaintance in particular, would have been rare, rare
hearing.
"Well, I'll call again in a day or two, Hamish," and he went away along
the gloomy streets, which were all ablaze with soft April sunshine, and
yet to him had suddenly become darkened. For he saw at a glance all
that this was like to do for him.

PART THE SECOND
I
The rare delight of his meetings with Margaret was at an end. Bluff
Fortune had slammed the door in his face, and White-handed Hope had
folded her golden wings and sat moping with melancholy mien.
He wandered into Kensington Gardens, but the daffodils swung their
heads despondently, and the gorgeous masses of hyacinths made him
think of funeral plumes on horses' heads.
He went on into the Park. She might be driving there, and he might
catch glimpse of her. But she was not, and all the rest were less than
nothing to him.
He found himself at Hyde Park Corner and back again at Kensington
Gate. But the door was still closed in his face, and he longed for the
sight of somebody else's as he had never longed before.

The post was of course open to him, but, at this stage at all events, he
felt that the written word would be eminently inadequate and
unsatisfying.
He wanted, when he approached that mighty question, to look into her
eyes and see her answer in their pure depths before it reached her
lips,--to watch the fluttering heart-signals in her sweet face and learn
from them more than all the words in the world could tell. Letters were,
at best, to actual speech but as actual speech would be to all that his
heart-quickened eyes would discover