Rowland had placed himself near Miss Garland, while the feasting went forward on the grass.She wore a so-called gypsy hat--a little straw hat, tied down over her ears, so as to cast her eyes into shadow, by a ribbon passing outside of it.
When the company dispersed, after lunch, he proposed to her to take a stroll in the wood.She hesitated a moment and looked toward Mrs.Hudson, as if for permission to leave her.
But Mrs.Hudson was listening to Mr.Striker, who sat gossiping to her with relaxed magniloquence, his waistcoat unbuttoned and his hat on his nose.
"You can give your cousin your society at any time," said Rowland.
"But me, perhaps, you 'll never see again.""Why then should we wish to be friends, if nothing is to come of it?"she asked, with homely logic.But by this time she had consented, and they were treading the fallen pine-needles.
"Oh, one must take all one can get," said Rowland.
"If we can be friends for half an hour, it 's so much gained.""Do you expect never to come back to Northampton again?"" 'Never' is a good deal to say.But I go to Europe for a long stay.""Do you prefer it so much to your own country?""I will not say that.But I have the misfortune to be a rather idle man, and in Europe the burden of idleness is less heavy than here."She was silent for a few minutes; then at last, "In that, then, we are better than Europe," she said.
To a certain point Rowland agreed with her, but he demurred, to make her say more.
"Would n't it be better," she asked, "to work to get reconciled to America, than to go to Europe to get reconciled to idleness?""Doubtless; but you know work is hard to find.""I come from a little place where every one has plenty,"said Miss Garland."We all work; every one I know works.
And really," she added presently, "I look at you with curiosity;you are the first unoccupied man I ever saw.""Don't look at me too hard," said Rowland, smiling."I shall sink into the earth.What is the name of your little place?""West Nazareth," said Miss Garland, with her usual sobriety.
"It is not so very little, though it 's smaller than Northampton.""I wonder whether I could find any work at West Nazareth," Rowland said.
"You would not like it," Miss Garland declared reflectively.
"Though there are far finer woods there than this.
We have miles and miles of woods."
"I might chop down trees," said Rowland."That is, if you allow it.""Allow it? Why, where should we get our firewood?"Then, noticing that he had spoken jestingly, she glanced at him askance, though with no visible diminution of her gravity.
"Don't you know how to do anything? Have you no profession?"Rowland shook his head."Absolutely none.""What do you do all day?"
"Nothing worth relating.That 's why I am going to Europe.
There, at least, if I do nothing, I shall see a great deal;and if I 'm not a producer, I shall at any rate be an observer.""Can't we observe everywhere?"
"Certainly; and I really think that in that way I make the most of my opportunities.Though I confess," he continued, "that I often remember there are things to be seen here to which I probably have n't done justice.
I should like, for instance, to see West Nazareth."She looked round at him, open-eyed; not, apparently, that she exactly supposed he was jesting, for the expression of such a desire was not necessarily facetious;but as if he must have spoken with an ulterior motive.
In fact, he had spoken from the simplest of motives.
The girl beside him pleased him unspeakably, and, suspecting that her charm was essentially her own and not reflected from social circumstance, he wished to give himself the satisfaction of contrasting her with the meagre influences of her education.
Miss Garland's second movement was to take him at his word.
"Since you are free to do as you please, why don't you go there?""I am not free to do as I please now.I have offered your cousin to bear him company to Europe, he has accepted with enthusiasm, and I cannot retract.""Are you going to Europe simply for his sake?"Rowland hesitated a moment."I think I may almost say so."Miss Garland walked along in silence."Do you mean to do a great deal for him?" she asked at last.
"What I can.But my power of helping him is very small beside his power of helping himself."For a moment she was silent again."You are very generous,"she said, almost solemnly.
"No, I am simply very shrewd.Roderick will repay me.
It 's an investment.At first, I think," he added shortly afterwards, "you would not have paid me that compliment.
You distrusted me."
She made no attempt to deny it."I did n't see why you should wish to make Roderick discontented.I thought you were rather frivolous.""You did me injustice.I don't think I 'm that.""It was because you are unlike other men--those, at least, whom I have seen.""In what way?"
"Why, as you describe yourself.You have no duties, no profession, no home.
You live for your pleasure."
"That 's all very true.And yet I maintain I 'm not frivolous.""I hope not," said Miss Garland, simply.They had reached a point where the wood-path forked and put forth two divergent tracks which lost themselves in a verdurous tangle.Miss Garland seemed to think that the difficulty of choice between them was a reason for giving them up and turning back.Rowland thought otherwise, and detected agreeable grounds for preference in the left-hand path.
As a compromise, they sat down on a fallen log.Looking about him, Rowland espied a curious wild shrub, with a spotted crimson leaf;he went and plucked a spray of it and brought it to Miss Garland.
He had never observed it before, but she immediately called it by its name.She expressed surprise at his not knowing it;it was extremely common.He presently brought her a specimen of another delicate plant, with a little blue-streaked flower.
"I suppose that 's common, too," he said, "but I have never seen it--or noticed it, at least." She answered that this one was rare, and meditated a moment before she could remember its name.
