The Old Helmet. Volume I. Warner Susan

THE SADDLE

      "She has two eyes, so soft and brown,

      Take care!

      She gives a side-glance and looks down,

      Beware! beware!"

      A few days more saw Eleanor restored to all the strength and beauty of health which she had been accustomed to consider her natural possession. And then – it is likely to be so – she was so happy in what mind and body had, that she forgot her wish for what the spirit had not. Or almost forgot it. Eleanor lived a very full life. It was no dull languid existence that she dragged on from day to day; time counted out none but golden pennies into her hand. Every minute was filled with business or play, both heartily entered into, and pursued with all the energy of a very energetic nature. Study, when she touched it, was sweet to her; but Eleanor did not study much. Nature was an enchanted palace of light and perfume. Bodily exertion, riding and walking, was as pleasant to her as it is to a bird to use its wings. Family intercourse, and neighbourly society, were nothing but pleasure. Benevolent kindness, if it came in her way, was a labour of love; and a hundred home occupations were greatly delighted in. They were not generally of an exalted character; Eleanor's training and associations had not led her into any very dignified path of human action; she had led only a butterfly's life of content and pleasure, and her character was not at all matured; but the capabilities were there; and the energy and will that might have done greater things, wrought beautiful embroidery, made endless fancy work, ordered well such part of the household economy as was committed to her, carried her bright smile into every circle, and made Eleanor's foot familiar with all the country where she could go alone, and her pony's trot well known in every lane and roadway where she could go with his company.

      All these enjoyments of her life were taken with new relish and zeal after her weeks of illness had laid her aside from them. Eleanor's world was brighter than ever. And round about all of these various enjoyments now, circling them with a kind of halo of expectancy or possibility, was the consciousness of a prospect that Eleanor knew was opening before her – a brilliant life-possession that she saw Fortune offering to her with a gracious hand. Would Eleanor take it? That Eleanor did not quite know. Meanwhile her eyes could not help looking that way; and her feet, consciously or unconsciously, now and then made a step towards it.

      She and her mother were sitting at work one morning – that is to say, Eleanor was drawing and Mrs. Powle cutting tissue paper in some very elaborate way, for some unknown use or purpose; when Julia dashed in.

      She threw a bunch of bright blue flowers on the table before her sister.

      "There," she said – "do you know what that is?"

      "Why certainly," said Eleanor. "It is borage."

      "Well, do you know what it means?"

      "What it means? No. What does any flower mean?"

      "I'll tell you what this means" – said Julia.

      "I, borage Bring courage."

      "That is what people used to think it meant."

      "How do you know that."

      "Mr. Rhys says so. This borage grew in Mrs. Williams's garden; and I dare say she believes it."

      "Who is Mrs. Williams?"

      "Why! – she's the old woman where Mr. Rhys lives; he lives in her cottage; that's where he has his school. He has a nice little room in her cottage, and there's nobody else in the cottage but Mrs. Williams."

      "Do, Julia, carry your flowers off, and do not be so hoydenish," said Mrs. Powle.

      "We have not seen Mr. Rhys here in a great while, mamma," said Eleanor.

      "I wonder what has become of him."

      "I'll tell you," said Julia – "he has become not well. I know Mr. Rhys is sick, because he is so pale and weak. And I know he is weak, because he cannot walk as he used to do. We used to walk all over the hills; and he says he can't go now."

      "Mamma, it would be right to send down and see what is the matter with him. There must be something. It is a long time – mamma, I think it is weeks – since he was at the Lodge."

      "Your father will send, I dare say," said Mrs. Powle, cutting her tissue paper.

      "Mamma, did you hear," said Eleanor as Julia ran off, "that Mr. Rhys was going to leave Wiglands and bury himself in some dreadful place, somewhere?"

      "I heard so."

      "What place is it?"

      "I can't tell, I am sure. It is somewhere in the South Seas, I believe – that region of horrors."

      "Is it true he is going there, mamma?"

      "I am sure I can't tell. Miss Broadus says so; and she says, I believe, he told her so himself. If he did, I suppose it is true."

      "Mamma, I think Mr. Rhys is a great deal too fine a man to go and lose his life in such a place. Miss Broadus says it is horrible. Do you know anything about it?"

      "I have no taste for horrors," said Mrs. Powle.

      "I think it is a great pity," Eleanor repeated. "I am sorry. There is enough in England for such a man to do, without going to the South Seas. I wonder how anybody can leave England!"

      Mrs. Powle looked up at her daughter and laughed. Eleanor had suspended her drawing and was sending a loving gaze out of the open window, where nature and summer were revelling in their conjoined riches. Art shewed her hand too, stealthily, having drawn out of the way of the others whatever might encumber the revel. Across a wide stretch of wooded and cultivated country, the eye caught the umbrageous heights on the further side of the valley of the Ryth. Eleanor's gaze was fixed. Mrs. Powle's glance was sly.

      "I should like to ask your opinion of another place," she said, – "which, being in England, is not horrible. You see that bit of brown mason-work, high away there, peeping out above the trees in the distance? – You know what house that is?"

      "Certainly."

      "What is it?"

      "It is the Priory. The new Priory, it ought to be called; I am sure the old one is down there in the valley yet – beneath it." But Eleanor's colour rose.

      "What do you think of that place?"

      "Considering that the old priory and its grounds belong to it, I think it must be one of the loveliest places in England."

      "I should like to see it in your possession – " Mrs. Powle remarked, going on with her tissue paper.

      Eleanor also went on assiduously with her drawing, and her colour remained a rich tint. But she went on frankly with her words too.

      "I am not sure, mamma, that I like the owner of it well enough to receive such a valuable gift from him."

      "He likes you, quite well enough to bestow it on you, without asking any questions," said Mrs. Powle. "He hardly thinks it is worth having, unless you have it too."

      "That is inconvenient," said Eleanor.

      "It strikes me the other way," said her mother.

      "How do you know this, which you affirm so securely, mamma?"

      "How should I know it? The person in question told me himself."

      "Told you in so many words?"

      "No, in a great many more," said Mrs. Powle laughing. "I have merely presented a statement. He had a great deal more to do than that."

      The tissue paper rustled quietly for some time after this, and Eleanor's pencil could be heard making quick marks. Neither lady interrupted the other.

      "Well, Eleanor, – how does it seem to you?" began the elder lady, in a tone of quiet satisfaction.

      "Inconvenient, mamma, – as I said."

      "How?"

      But Eleanor did not say how.

      "Mr. Carlisle will be here for his answer this evening."

      "I like him very well, mamma," said Eleanor, after another pause, – "but I do not