Queechy Volume I Part 68

and dear little creature, as I am sure you have been ever since! And how is your dear aunt Lucy?"

Fleda answered that she was well.

"I used to love her very much ? that was before I knew you ?

before she went abroad. We have just got home ? this spring; and now we are staying at Montepoole for a few days. I shall come and see her to-morrow ? I knew you were somewhere in this region, but I did not know exactly where to find you; that was one reason why I came here to-day, I thought I might hear something of you. And where are your aunt Lucy's children? and how are they?"

"Hugh is at home," said Fleda, "and rather delicate ? Charlton is in the army."

"In the army! In Mexico! ?"

"In Mexico he has been ?"

"Your poor aunt Lucy!"

"? In Mexico he has been, but he is just coming home now ? he has been wounded, and he is coming home to spend a long furlough."

"Coming home. That will make you all very happy. And Hugh is delicate; and how are you, love? you hardly look like a country-girl. Mr. Olmney!" said Mrs. Evelyn, looking round for her companion, who was standing quietly a few steps off, surveying the scene. "Mr. Olmney! I am going to do you a favour, Sir, in introducing you to Miss Ringgan, a very old friend of mine. Mr. Olmney, these are not exactly the apple- cheeks and _robustious_ demonstrations we are taught to look for in country-land."

This was said with a kind of sly funny enjoyment, which took away everything disagreeable from the appeal; but Fleda conceived a favourable opinion of the person to whom it was made from the fact that he paid her no compliment, and made no answer beyond a very pleasant smile.

"What is Mrs. Evelyn's definition of a _very old_ friend?" said he, with another smile, as that lady moved off to take a more particular view of what she had come to see. "To judge by the specimen before me, I should consider it very equivocal."

"Perhaps Mrs. Evelyn counts friendships by inheritance," said Fleda. "I think they ought to be counted so."

" 'Thine own friend, and thy father's friend, forsake not,' "

said the young man.

Fleda looked up and smiled a pleased answer.

"There is something very lovely in the faithfulness of tried friendship, and very uncommon."

"I know that it is uncommon only by hearsay," said Fleda. "I have so many good friends."

He was silent for an instant, possibly thinking there might be a reason for that, unknown only to Fleda herself.

"Perhaps one must be in peculiar circ.u.mstances to realize it,"

he said, sighing; ? "circ.u.mstances that leave one of no importance to any one in the world. But it is a kind lesson, ?

one learns to depend more on the one friendship that can never disappoint."

Fleda's eyes again gave an answer of sympathy; for she thought from the shade that had come upon his face, that these circ.u.mstances had probably been known to himself.

"This is rather an amusing scene," he remarked presently, in a low tone.

"Very," said Fleda. "I have never seen such a one before."

"Nor I," said he. "It is a pleasant scene, too; it is pleasant to see so many evidences of kindness and good feeling on the part of all these people."

"There is all the more show of it, I suppose, to-day," said Fleda, "because we have a new minister coming; they want to make a favourable impression."

"Does the old proverb of the 'new broom' hold good here too?"

said he, smiling. "What's the name of your new minister?"

"I am not certain," said Fleda; "there were two talked of; the last I heard was, that it was an old Mr. Carey; but from what I hear this morning, I suppose it must be the other ? a Mr.

Ollum, or some such queer name, I believe."

Fleda thought her hearer looked very much amused, and followed his eye into the room, where Mrs. Evelyn was going about in all quarters looking at everything, and finding occasion to enter into conversation with at least a quarter of the people who were present. Whatever she was saying, it seemed at that moment to have something to do with them, for sundry eyes turned in their direction; and presently Dr. Quackenboss came up, with even more than common suavity of manner.

"I trust Miss Ringgan will do me the favour of making me acquainted with ? a ? with our future pastor!" said the doctor, looking, however, not at all at Miss Ringgan, but straight at the pastor in question. "I have great pleasure in giving you the first welcome, Sir ? or, I should say, rather the second; since, no doubt, Miss Ringgan has been in advance of me. It is not un ? a ? appropriate, Sir, for I may say we ?

a ? divide the town between us. You are, I am sure, a worthy representative of Peter and Paul; and I am ? a ? a pupil of Esculapius, Sir! You are the intellectual physician, and I am the external."

"I hope we shall both prove ourselves good workmen, Sir," said the young minister, shaking the doctor's hand heartily.

"This is Dr. Quackenboss; Mr. Olmney," said Fleda, making a tremendous effort. But though she could see corresponding indications about her companion's eyes and mouth, she admired the kindness and self-command with which he listened to the doctor's civilities and answered them; expressing his grateful sense of the favours received, not only from him, but from others.

"Oh ? a little to begin with," said the doctor, looking round upon the room, which would certainly have furnished _that_ for fifty people; "I hope we aint done yet by considerable ? But here is Miss Ringgan, Mr. ? a ? Ummin, that has brought you some of the fruits of her own garden, with her own fair hands ? a basket of fine strawberries, which, I am sure ? a ? will make you forget everything else!"

Mr. Olmney had the good-breeding not to look at Fleda, as he answered, "I am sure the spirit of kindness was the same in all, Dr. Quackenboss, and I trust not to forget that readily."

Others now came up; and Mr. Olmney was walked off to be "made acquainted" with all, or with all the chief of his parishioners then and there a.s.sembled. Fleda watched him going about, shaking hands, talking and smiling, in all directions, with about as much freedom of locomotion as a fly in a spider's web; till, at Mrs. Evelyn's approach, the others fell off a little, and taking him by the arm, she rescued him.

"My dear Mr. Olmney," she whispered, with an intensely amused face, "I shall have a vision of you every day for a month to come, sitting down to dinner, with a rueful face, to a whortleberry pie; for there are so many of them, your conscience will not let you have anything else cooked, ? you cannot manage more than one a day."

"Pies!" said the young gentleman, as Mrs. Evelyn left talking, to indulge her feelings in ecstatic quiet laughing ? "I have a horror of pies!"

"Yes, yes," said Mrs. Evelyn, nodding her head delightedly, as she drew him towards the pantry ? "I know! ? Come and see what is in store for you. You are to do penance for a month to come with tin pans of blackberry jam, fringed with pie crust ? no, they can't be blackberries, they must be raspberries, the blackberries are not ripe yet. And you may sup upon cake and custards, unless you give the custards for the little pig out there, he will want something."

"A pig!" said Mr. Olmney, in amaze ? Mrs. Evelyn again giving out in distress. "A pig!" said Mr. Olmney.

"Yes, a pig ? a very little one," said Mrs. Evelyn, convulsively. "I am sure he is hungry now."

They had reached the pantry, and Mr. Olmney's face was all that was wanting to Mrs. Evelyn's delight. How she smothered it, so that it should go no further than to distress his self- command, is a mystery known only to the initiated. Mrs.

Dougla.s.s was forthwith called into council.

"Mrs. Dougla.s.s," said Mr. Olmney, "I feel very much inclined to play the host, and beg my friends to share with me some of these good things they have been so bountifully providing."

"He would enjoy them much more than he would alone, Mrs.

Dougla.s.s," said Mrs. Evelyn, who still had hold of Mr.

Olmney's arm, looking round to the lady with a most benign face.

"I reckon some of 'em would be past enjoying by the time he got to 'em, wouldn't they?" said the lady. "Well, they'll have to take 'em in their fingers, for our crockery ha'n't come yet ? I shall have to jog Mr. Flatt's elbow; but hungry folks aint curious."

"In their fingers, or any way, provided you have only a knife to cut them with," said Mr. Olmney, while Mrs. Evelyn squeezed his arm in secret mischief; "and pray, if we can muster two knives, let us cut one of these cheeses, Mrs. Dougla.s.s."

And presently Fleda saw pieces of pie walking about in all directions, supported by pieces of cheese. And then Mrs.

Evelyn and Mr. Olmney came out from the pantry and came towards her, the latter bringing her, with his own hands, a portion in a tin pan. The two ladies sat down in the window together to eat and be amused.

"My dear Fleda, I hope you are hungry," said Mrs. Evelyn, biting her pie, Fleda could not help thinking, with an air of good-humoured condescension.

"I am, Ma'am," she said, laughing.