Wych Hazel | Page 7

is broken.'
'Queer place to rest, sir! Mr. Falkirk--there is Mr. Kingsland wondering why you keep me here.'
'He's eating his dinner.'
'Is he? I am afraid there will be crumbs in the piazza,' said Wych Hazel, closing her eyes. 'He says he don't wonder you are kept.'
'What shall I get you, Wych? You cannot go from here to the next stopping place without anything,' Mr. Falkirk said kindly.
'If you could find me, sir, a basket that would just hold this kitten'--
Mr. Falkirk wasted no more words, but went off, and came back with a glass of milk and a plate of doubtful 'chunks' of cake. The room was empty. Bonnet and veil were gone, and even the kitten had disappeared. Meanwhile the stage coach rattled and swung up to the piazza steps, where were presently gathered the various travellers, one by one. 'Mr. Falkirk,' said Mr. Kingsland, as that gentleman came out rather hastily to see if his charge might be there, too, 'you are not surely--agoing on alone?'
Back went Mr. Falkirk into the house again to look for his missing ward, who had plainly been foraging. On the table was a paper of crackers; two blue-eyed and blue-aproned youngsters stood watching every motion as she swallowed the glass of milk, and in her hand was a suspicious looking basket. Wych Hazel set down her empty tumbler.
'My dear Mr. Falkirk, I was beginning to be concerned about you!'
'What are you going to do with that basket, Miss Hazel?'
'Take it along, sir.'
'On your lap, I suppose!'
'Mr. Falkirk, the accuracy of your judgment is unparalleled. Is that our coach at the door?'
'My dear, you will find plenty of cats at Chickaree,' said her guardian, looking annoyed.
'Yes, sir--' said the young lady meekly, dropping her veil and fitting on her gloves.
'All right, sir,' said the landlord appearing at the door. 'Roughish road, Mr. Falkirk--and t'other gents not enough patience to divide among 'em and go half round--'
How much patience Mr. Falkirk carried to the general stock does not appear. But presently, lifting one corner of her basket lid, Wych Hazel drew forth a radiant spray of roses, and laid them penitently upon the averted line of her guardian's coatsleeve.
'Where did you get that?' he said. 'You had better put it in the basket, my dear; it will stand a better chance to keep fresh.'
'Do you prefer pinks, sir?--or here are bachelor's buttons--'
'They seem rather common things to me,' said Mr. Falkirk slowly, yet with a somewhat pacified brow. There was no kitten in the basket!
'I hadn't the heart to bring puss, as we are going to Catskill,' whispered Miss Hazel.
'We!' ejaculated Mr. Falkirk.
'Nominative case, first person plural, sir.'
'And what's the definition of an adverb?'
'Something which qualifies your suffering--n'est-ce pas, Mr. Falkirk?'
'Certainly, by its primary action upon your doing, Miss Hazel. We are going to Chickaree.'
To which statement Miss Hazel for the present made no reply. She retreated to the depths of her own corner and the brown veil; fingering her roses now and then, and (apparently) making endless mental 'studies' of the wayside. The coach jogged lumberingly on: there was no relief to the tiresomeness of the way. It was a long morning. Dusty and weary, the coach- load was set down at last at another country inn; by the side of a little river which had well filled its banks. The travellers were not, it must be noted, upon any of the great highways of passage, but had taken a cut across country, over some of the spurs of the Catskill; where a railroad was not. Mr. Falkirk brought his charge into the 'Ladies' parlour,' and spoke in a tone of irritated business.
'This is Hadyn's Dam. You can have rest and dinner now.'
CHAPTER IV.
FELLOW TRAVELLERS.
'Dinner--and the rest of it,' translated Miss Hazel. 'Will it be needful to make a grand toilette, sir? or shall I go to the table as I am? If one may judge of the selectness of the company by their conversation'--
'You'll see no more of the company,' said Mr. Falkirk; 'they are going another way, and we have to wait here. The bridge will be repaired to-morrow, I suppose.'
'Yes, sir. We don't dine upon the bridge, I presume?'
Mr. Falkirk went off, making sure that the door latched behind him. In a quarter of an hour he came back, with an attendant bearing a tray.
'At present fortune gives us nothing more remarkable than fried ham,' he said,--'and that not of the most eatable, I fear. She is a jade. But we'll get away to-morrow. I hope so.'
'My dear sir,' said Wych Hazel with a radiant face, 'we will get away to-night. I find that the bridge is not on our road, after all. So I said it was not worth while to get a room ready for me,--and the baggage might