The Money Moon Part 15

"A pound of your favourite tobacco!" said Anthea, with a smiling nod.

"Oh the good weed! The blessed weed!" cried the old woman, clutching the package with trembling fingers. "Ah! who can tell the comfort it has been to me in the long, long days, and the long, long nights,--the blessed weed! when I've sat here a looking and a looking into the fire.

G.o.d bless you, my sweet maid, for your kindly thought!" and, with a sudden gesture, she caught Anthea's hand to her lips, and then, just as suddenly turned upon Bellew.

"And now, tall sir, can I do ought for ye? Shall I look into the fire for ye, or the ink, or read your hand?"

"Why yes," answered Bellew, stretching out his hand to her, "you shall tell me two things, if you will; first, shall one ever find his way into the 'Castle of Heart's Desire,' and secondly;--When?"

"Oh, but I don't need to look into your hand to tell you that, tall sir, nor yet in the ink, or in the fire, for I've dreamed it all in my dreams. And now, see you, 'tis a strong place, this Castle,--wi' thick doors, and great locks, and bars. But I have seen those doors broke'

down,--those great locks, and bars burst asunder,--but--there is none can do this but him as bears the Tiger-Mark. So much for the first. And, for the second,--Happiness shall come a riding to you on the full moon,--but you must reach up--and take it for yourself,--if you be tall enough."

"And--even you are not tall enough to do that, Mr. Bellew!" laughed Anthea, as she rose to bid Old Nannie "Good-night," while Bellew, unnoticed, slipped certain coins upon a corner of the chimney-piece. So, old Nannie blessed them, and theirs,--past, present, and future, thoroughly and completely, with a fine comprehensiveness that only a genuinely accomplished old witch might hope to attain to, and, following them to the door, paused there with one shrivelled, claw-like hand up-lifted towards the sky:

"At the full o' the moon, tall sir!" she repeated, "at the full o' the moon! As for you, my dark-eyed lady, I say, by force you shall be wooed, and by force ye shall be wed, aye! aye!--but there is no man strong enough except he have the Tiger-Mark upon him. Old Nannie knows,--she's seen it in the ink, dreamed it in the fire, and read it all in your pretty hand. And now--thank ye for the tea, my pretty, and G.o.d bless ye for the good weed, and just so sure as you've been good, and kind to old Nannie, so shall Fortune be good and kind to you, Miss Anthea."

"Poor old Nannie!" said Anthea, as they went on down the gra.s.sy lane, "she is so very grateful for so little. And she is such a gentle old creature really, though the country folk do call her a witch and are afraid of her because they say she has the 'evil eye,'--which is ridiculous, of course! But n.o.body ever goes near her, and she is dreadfully lonely, poor old thing!"

"And so that is why you come to sit with her, and let her talk to you?"

enquired Bellew, staring up at the moon.

"Yes."

"And do you believe in her dreams, and visions?"

"No,--of course not!" answered Anthea, rather hurriedly, and with a deeper colour in her cheeks, though Bellew was still intent upon the moon. "You don't either,--do you?" she enquired, seeing he was silent.

"Well, I don't quite know," he answered slowly, "but she is rather a wonderful old lady, I think."

"Yes, she has wonderful thick hair still," nodded Anthea, "and she's not a bit deaf, and her eyes are as clear, and sharp as ever they were."

"Yes, but I wasn't meaning her eyes, or her hair, or her hearing."

"Oh,--then pray what were you pleased to mean?"

"Did you happen to notice what she said about a--er--Man with, a--Tiger-Mark?" enquired Bellew, still gazing up at the moon.

Anthea laughed:

"The Man with the Tiger-Mark,--of course! he has been much in her dreams, lately, and she has talked of him a great deal,--"

"Has she?" said Bellew, "ha!"

"Yes,--her mind is full of strange twists, and fancies,--you see she is so very old,--and she loves to tell me her dreams, and read the future for me."

"Though, of course, you don't believe it," said Bellew.

"Believe it!" Anthea repeated, and walked some dozen paces, or so, before she answered,--"no, of course not."

"Then--none of your fortune,--nothing she told you has ever come true?"

Once more Anthea hesitated, this time so long that Bellew turned from his moon-gazing to look at her.

"I mean," he went on, "has none of it ever come true,--about this Man with the Tiger-Mark, for instance?"

"No,--oh no!" answered Anthea, rather hastily, and laughed again. "Old Nannie has seen him in her dreams--everywhere,--in India, and Africa, and China; in hot countries, and cold countries--oh! Nannie has seen him everywhere, but I have seen him--nowhere, and, of course, I never shall."

"Ah!" said Bellew, "and she reads him always in your fortune, does she?"

"And I listen very patiently," Anthea nodded, "because it pleases her so much, and it is all so very harmless, after all, isn't it?"

"Yes," answered Bellew, "and very wonderful!"

"Wonderful?--poor old Nannie's fancies!--What do you mean by wonderful?"

"Upon my word, I hardly know," said Bellew, shaking his head, "but 'there are more things in heaven, and earth,' etc., you know, and this is one of them."

"Really!--now you grow mysterious, Mr. Bellew."

"Like the night!" he answered, turning to aid her across the impertinent brook that chuckled at them, and laughed after them, as only such a very impertinent brook possibly could.

So, betimes, they reached the stile, and crossed it, this time without mishap, despite the lurking nail and, all too soon for Bellew, had traversed the orchard, and were come to the garden where the roses all hung so still upon their stems that they might have been asleep, and filling the air with the perfume of their dreams.

And here they paused, perhaps because of the witchery of the moon, perhaps to listen to the voice of the nightingale who sang on more gloriously than ever. Yet, though they stood so close together, their glances seldom met, and they were very silent. But at last, as though making up her mind, Anthea spoke:

"What did you mean when you said Old Nannie's dreams were so wonderful?"

she asked.

"I'll show you!" he answered, and, while he spoke, slipped off his coat, and drawing up his shirt-sleeve, held out a muscular, white arm towards her. He held it out in the full radiance of the moon, and thus, looking down at it, her eyes grew suddenly wide, and her breath caught strangely as surprise gave place to something else; for there, plain to be seen upon the white flesh, were three long scars that wound up from elbow to shoulder. And so, for a while, they stood thus, she looking at his arm, and he at her.

"Why--" said she at last, finding voice in a little gasp,--"why then--"

"I am the Man with the Tiger Mark!" he said, smiling his slow, placid smile. Now, as his eyes looked down into hers, she flushed sudden, and hot, and her glance wavered, and fell beneath his.

"Oh!" she cried, and, with the word, turned about, and fled from him into the house.

CHAPTER XII

_In which may be found a full, true, and particular account of the sale_

"Uncle Porges, there's a little man in the hall with a red, red nose, an' a blue, blue chin,--"

"Yes, I've seen him,--also his nose, and chin, my Porges."

"But he's sticking little papers with numbers on them, all over my Auntie Anthea's chairs,--an' tables. Now what do you s'pose he's doing that for?"

"Who knows? It's probably all on account of his red nose, and blue chin, my Porges. Anyway, don't worry about him,--let us rather, find our Auntie Anthea."