The Actress' Daughter Part 14

Georgia looked grave and dark, and was silent.

"Come, Georgia, tell us," said Richmond. "I should like to hear this dream of yours."

"Oh, it was awful!" said Georgia, speaking in a hushed tone of awe. "I thought I was walking on and on through a dark, gloomy place, following some one who made me come on. The ground was full of sharp stones and hurt my feet, and they bled dreadfully; but he wouldn't let me stop, but pulled me on and on, till the ground where I walked was all covered with blood."

"Hard-hearted monster!" said Charley; "should admire to be punching that fellow's head for him!"

"As we went on," continued Georgia, looking straight before her with a dark kind of earnestness, and speaking in the tone of one describing events then pa.s.sing, "the ground grew sharper and sharper, and the blood flowed so fast that at last I screamed out for him to let me go, that I couldn't walk any farther. But he only laughed at me, and pulled me on."

"The scoundrel!" broke in Charley. "If I had been there, I would have made him laugh on the other side of his mouth."

"Then, all of a sudden, we came to a great, red-hot blazing fire, that looked like burning serpents with tongues of flame. All was fire, fire, fire, on every side, red-hot blazing flames, that crackled and roared, and made everything as red as blood. I screamed out and tried to break away, but he held me fast and pushed me into the fire. I felt burning, scorching, roasting. I screamed out, and fell all burned and blazing on the ground; and then I woke, and I was sitting up in bed screaming out, and Miss Jerusha was standing over me holding me down."

Georgia paused, and there was something in her blanched face, horror-dilated eyes, and deep, awe-struck tones that for a moment sent a superst.i.tious thrill to every heart. It was for a moment, and then Charley carelessly remarked:

"Nightmares _are_ pleasant quadrupeds I know; I made the acquaintance of one after eating half a mince pie and three pigs' feet one night before going to bed; but for constant exercise I must say I should decidedly prefer riding Miss Jerusha's Shanghai rooster to trying the experiment again."

"Did you recognize the man who was with you?" asked Richmond.

"Yes," said Georgia, in a low voice.

"You did, eh?" said Charley; "who was it?"

"I sha'n't tell you."

"Oh, now, you wouldn't be so cruel. Come, out with it."

"I won't," said Georgia, with one of her sharp flashes; "but it's true--every word of it."

"You mean it will come true?" said Richmond.

"Yes."

"Why, Georgia, do you believe in dreams?" said Emily. "Oh, that's wicked; mother says so."

"Wicked! it's no such thing. What do people dream for if they're not to come true?"

"So you believe you are destined to be burned up?" said Richmond.

"Yes," said Georgia, unhesitatingly.

"Oh, I haven't the slightest doubt of it," said Charley; "if you miss it in this world, you'll----"

"Now, Charley, be quiet," said Richmond, soothingly; "you have no experience in different sorts of worlds, so you are not capable of judging. Georgia, you are the most silly-wise child I ever met in all my life."

"What!" said Georgia, with a scowl.

"You are so unnaturally precocious in some ways, and so childishly simple in others. You know the most unexpected things, and are ignorant of the commonest facts that any infant almost comprehends. You are morbid and superst.i.tious--but I knew that before. A little learning is a dangerous thing. Georgia, you ought to go to school."

Now, school was Georgia's pet abomination. Miss Jerusha, partly to be rid of her and partly for the propriety of the thing, had often wished to send her; but the idea of being cooped up a prisoner within the walls of a school-room, and obliged to obey every command, was abhorrent to the free, unfettered, untamed child. Go to school, indeed! Not she! She laughed at the notion. Richmond had never spoken of it before to her, and now, conscious of his power over her, and trembling for her threatened liberty, all the old spirit of daring and fierce defiance flashed up in her bold black eyes, and, springing to her feet, she confronted him.

"I _won't_! I'll never go to school! I hate it!"

Georgia never said "I can't" or "I don't like to," but her dauntless, defiant "I _will_" and "I _won't_," bespoke her nature. Emily said the former; Georgia, never.

Richmond expected exactly this answer, therefore he only smiled slightly, and carelessly asked,

"Why?"

"Because I won't be shut up in a nasty old school-house, and not be able to speak or move without asking leave. I'll not go for _any one_!" she said, flashing a threatening glance at him.

"Every one else does it, Georgia."

"I don't care for every one else."

"_I_ did it, Georgia."

"Well, I don't care for you!"

"Whew!" whistled Charley. "Sharp shooting, this."

"Then you prefer to grow up a--"

"What?"

"A dunce, and be laughed at."

"Let them laugh at me! let them dare do it!" cried Georgia, fiercely.

"And dare do it they will. Pooh, Georgia, have sense. You can't roll up your sleeves and go to fisticuffs with the whole world. What else can you expect but to be laughed at when you are a woman if you know nothing but what you do now? Wait till you see the wise little woman Emily here is going to be. Why, your friends will be ashamed of you, Georgia, by and by, if you don't learn something."

"Let them, then! I don't care for them!"

"Oh, don't you? I thought that as they cared so much for you, you might care a little for them. I am sorry it is not so, Georgia; I am very sorry my little friend is selfish and ungrateful."

"I am _not_ ungrateful," said Georgia, pa.s.sionately, but her lips quivered.

"Then prove it by doing something to please your friends. Think how they have tried to please you, and just ask yourself what you have done in return to please them. Come, Georgia, be reasonable. You will think better of this when you come to reflect on it."

"That's right, Rich," cried Charley; "go in and win! I always knew you had a native talent for teaching young ideas how to shoot. Splendid parson you'd make."

"I _have_ tried to please them! I have tried to please _you_!"

"Well, did I ever ask you to do any thing but what was your _duty_ to do? I am afraid you have not a good idea of what that word means. I am your friend, you know, Georgia, am I _not_?" he said gently.

"I don't know," she said, with a trembling lip.

"But I am your true friend. What difference can it make to me whether you grow up learned and accomplished, or as ignorant as your little servant, Fly?"