CHAPTER X.
MISS HAGAR.
"Let me gaze for a moment, that ere I die, I may read thee, lady, a prophecy: That brow may beam in glory awhile, That cheek may bloom, and that lip may smile; But clouds shall darken that brow of snow, And sorrows blight that bosom's glow." --L. DAVISON.
Meantime, while the squire was throwing the household of Sunset Hallinto terror and consternation, the object of his wrath was enjoyingherself with audacious coolness at Deep Dale.
The family of Doctor Nicholas Wiseman consisted of one daughter, a yearor two older than Gipsy, a nephew called Archie Rivers, and a maidenstep-sister, Miss Hagar Dedley. The doctor, who was naturally graspingand avaricious, would not have burdened himself with the care of thosetwo had it been anything out of his own pocket. The parents of ArchieRivers had been tolerably wealthy, and at their death had left him quitea fortune, and amply remunerated the doctor for taking charge of himuntil he should be of age. Miss Hagar had a slender income, sufficientfor her wants, and was permitted a room in his house as long as sheshould continue to take care of herself.
Deep Dale had once been the residence of a wealthy and aristocraticfamily, but had by some unknown means passed from their hands to thoseof Doctor Wiseman.
It was, as its name implied, a long, deep, sloping dale, with the forestof St. Mark's towering darkly behind, and a wide, grassy lawn slopingdown from the front. The house itself was a long, low, irregular mansionof gray sandstone, with a quaint, pleasant, old-fashioned look.
Evening was now approaching. The curtains were drawn, the lamps lighted,and the family assembled in the plainly, almost scantily, furnishedsitting-room.
By the fire, in a large leathern arm-chair, sat our old acquaintance,the doctor, with one long, lean leg crossed over the other, one eyeclosed, and the other fixed so intently on the floor that he seemed tobe counting the threads in the carpet. Years have done anything but addto his charms, his face never looked so much like yellow parchment as itdid then, his arms and legs were longer and skinnier-looking than ever,and altogether, a more unprepossessing face could hardly have beendiscovered.
By the table, knitting, sat Miss Hagar. Her tall, thin figure, andgrave, solemn face, made her look almost majestic, as, with her lipsfirmly compressed, she knit away in grim silence. Unlike otherspinsters, she neither petted dogs nor cats, but had a mostunaccountable mania for fortune-telling, and had been, for years, theseeress and sibyl of the whole neighborhood.
In a distant corner of the room sat the little _protegee_ of Miss Hagar,with Gipsy on one side of her, and Archie Rivers on the other, regardingher as though she were some sort of natural curiosity. And, truly, amore lovely child could scarcely have been found.
She appeared to be about the same age as Gipsy, but was taller and moregraceful, with a beautifully rounded figure, not plump, like that ofmost children, but slender and elegant, and lithe as a willow wand. Asmall, fair, sweet face, with long, golden hair, and soft, dreamy eyesof blue, and a smile like an angel's.
Such was Celeste!
Such a contrast as she was to Gipsy, as she sat with her little whitehands folded in her lap, the long golden lashes falling shyly over theblue eyes; her low, sweet voice and timid manner, so still and gentle;and her elfish companion, with her dark, bright face, her eager,sparkling, restless eyes, her short, sable locks, and her every motionso quick and startling, as to make one nervous watching her.
Archie Rivers, a merry, good-looking lad, with roguish blue eyes and alaughing face, sat, alternately watching the fair, downcast face ofCeleste, and the piquant, gipsyish countenance of the other.
At the table sat Minnette Wiseman, a proud, superb-looking girl oftwelve. Her long, jet-black hair fell in glossy braids over hershoulders; her elbows rested on the table; her chin supported by herhands; her large, glittering black eyes fixed on Celeste, with a look offixed dislike and jealousy that was never to die out during life.
"And so you have no other name but Celeste," said Gipsy, trying to peerunder the drooping lashes resting on the blue-veined cheek. "Now, ifthat isn't funny! Everybody has two names but you--even _me_. I have twonames."
"Yes, Gipsy Gower. There is something odd and elfinish in the veryname," said Archie, laughing.
"Elfinish? It's no such thing. It's a great deal prettier than yours,Archie Rivers! And where did you live before you came here, Celeste?"continued Gipsy, returning to the charge.
"With Aunt Katie," replied Celeste, softly.
"And where is she now?" went on Gipsy.
"Dead!" said the child, while her lip trembled, and a tear fell on thelittle brown hand lying on her own.
"Do tell! and I've made you cry, too. Now, if that ain't too bad. Do youknow, Celeste, I never cried in my life?"
"Oh, what a fib!" exclaimed Archie. "You were the horridest young one tocry ever I heard in my life. You did nothing but yell and roar frommorning till night."
"I don't believe it! I don't believe it!" indignantly exclaimed Gipsy."I'm sure I was too sensible a baby to do anything of the kind. Anyway,I have never cried since I can remember. And as to fear--were you everafraid?" she asked, suddenly, of Celeste.
"Oh, yes--often."
"Did you ever? Why, you look afraid now. Are you?"
"Yes."
"My! What of?"
"Of _you_," said Celeste, shrinking back, shyly, from her impetuouslittle questioner.
"Oh, my stars and garters! Afraid of _me_, and after I've been so quietand good with her all the evening!" ejaculated Gipsy; while Archie, whowas blessed with a lively sense of the ridiculous, leaned back andlaughed heartily.
"Well, after that I'm never going to believe there's anything butingratitude in _this_ world," said Gipsy, with an emphasis on the"_this_" which seemed to denote she _had_ met with gratitude inanother.
But tears filled the gentle eyes of Celeste, as she looked up, and said:
"Oh, I hope you're not angry with me. I didn't mean to offend you, I'msure. I'm _so_ sorry."
"Oh, it's no matter. Nobody minds what they say to me. I'm used to it.But it's so funny you should be afraid. Why, I never was afraid in mylife."
"That's true enough, anyway," said Archie, with an assenting nod.
"There's Guardy now. Oh! won't he be awful when I get home--but laws!who cares! I'll pay him off for it, if he makes a fuss. I sha'n't be inhis debt long, that's one comfort."
"Do you remember how dolefully Jupiter looked as he came in for you, alldripping wet; and when you told him you wouldn't go, he----" andovercome by the ludicrous recollection, Master Archie again fell back ina paroxysm of laughter.
"What a fellow you are to laugh, Archie!" remarked Gipsy. "You astonishme, I declare. Do you laugh much, Celeste?"
"No, not much."
"That's right--I don't laugh much either--I'm too dignified, you know;but somehow I make other people laugh. There's Archie now, foreverlasting laughing; but Minnette--do you know I never saw her laughyet--that is, really laugh. She smiles sometimes; not a pleasant smileeither, but a scornful smile like. I say, Minnette," she added, raisingher voice, "what is the reason you never laugh?"
"None of your business," rudely replied Minnette.
"The Lord never intended her face for a smiling one," said Miss Hagar,breaking in, suddenly. "And you, you poor little wild eaglet, who, amoment ago, boasted you had never wept, you shall yet shed tears ofblood. The bird has its eyes put out with red-hot iron before it can bemade to sing sweetly; and so you, too, poor bird, must be blinded, eventhough you should flutter and beat yourself to death, trying to breakthrough the bars of your cage."
"Humph! I'd like to see them trying to put my eyes out," said Gipsy. "Iguess I'd make them sing, and on the wrong side of their mouths, too--atleast, I think I should!"
"Oh, Miss Hagar, tell us our fortunes--you haven't done so this longtime," exclaimed Archie, jumping up. "Here is Gipsy wants to know hers,and Celeste's, too; and as for me, I know the fu
ture must have somethingsplendid in store for so clever a fellow, and I'm anxious to know itbeforehand."
"Don't be too anxious," said Miss Hagar, fixing her gloomy eyesprophetically on his eager, happy face; "troubles are soon enough whenthey come, without wishing to forestall them."
"Why, Miss Hagar, you don't mean to say I'm to have troubles?" criedArchie, laughing. "If they do come, I'll laugh in their face, and cry,'Never surrender.' I don't believe, though, my troubles will be veryheavy."
"Yes, the heaviest troubles that man can ever know shall be thine," saidthe oracle, in her deep, gloomy voice. "The day will come when despair,instead of laughter, will fill your beaming eyes; when the smile shallhave left your lip, and the hue of health will give place to the duskyglow of the grave. Yes, the day will come when the wrong you may notquell shall cling to you like a garment of flame, crushing andoverwhelming you and all you love, in its fiery, burning shame. The daywill come when one for whom you would give your life shall desert youfor your deadliest enemy, and leave you to despair and woe. Such is thefate I have read in the stars for you."
"La! Archie, what a nice time you're going to have," said theincorrigible Gipsy, breaking the impressive silence that followed thesibyl's words--"when all that comes to pass! It will be as good as aplay to you."
"Miss Hagar must have sat up all last night getting that pretty speechby heart," said Minnette, fixing her mocking black eyes on the face ofthe spinster. "How well she repeated it! She'd make her fortune on thestage as a tragedy queen."
"Scoffer!" said the sibyl, turning her prophetic eyes on the deridingface of the speaker, while her face darkened, and her stern mouth grewsterner still. "One day that iron heart of thine shall melt; that heart,which, as yet, is sealed with granite, shall feel every fiber drawn outby the roots, to be cast at your feet quivering and bleeding, unvaluedand uncared for. Come hither, and let me read your future in your eyes."
"No, no!" said Minnette, shaking back, scornfully, her glossy blackhair. "Prate your old prophecies to the fools who believe you. I'll notbe among the number."
"Unbeliever, I heed it not!" said Miss Hagar as she rose slowly to herfeet; and the light of inspiration gathered in her eyes of gray, as,swaying to and fro, she chanted, in a wild, dirge-like tone:
"Beware! beware! for the time will come-- A blighted heart, a ruined home. In the dim future I foresee A fate far worse than death for thee."
Her eyes were still riveted on the deriding face and bold, bright eyes,that, in spite of all their boldness, quailed before her steady gaze.
"Good-gracious, Miss Hagar, if you haven't nearly frightened this littleatomy into fits!" said Gipsy. "I declare, of all the little cowards everwas, she's the greatest! Now, if I thought it wouldn't scare the lifeout of her, I'd have my fortune told. If everybody else is going to havesuch pretty things happen to them, I don't see why I shouldn't, too."
"Come here, then, and let me read thy fate," said Miss Hagar. "Thespirit is upon me to-night, and it may never come more."
"All right. Archie, stop grinning and 'tend this little scary thing.Now, go ahead, Miss Hagar."
The seeress looked down solemnly into the dark, piquant little faceupturned so gravely to her own; into the wicked brown eyes, twinklingand glittering with such insufferable mischief and mirth; and, bendingher tall body down, she again chanted, in her dreary tone:
"Thou wast doomed from thy birth, oh, ill-fated child; Like thy birthnight, thy life shall be stormy and wild; There is blood on thine hand, there is death in thine eye, And the one who best loves thee, _by thee shall he die_!"
"Whew! if that ain't pleasant! I always knew I'd be the death ofsomebody!" exclaimed Gipsy. "Wonder who it is going to be? Shouldn't bes'prised if 'twas Jupiter. I've been threatening to send him to Jerichoever since I can remember. La! if it comes true, won't Minette, andArchie and I be in a 'state of mind' one of these days! I say, Celeste,come over here, and let's have a little more of the horrible. I begin tolike it."
"Yes, go, Celeste, go," said Archie, lifting her off her seat.
But Celeste, with a stifled cry of terror, covered her face with herhands, and shrank back.
"Coward!" exclaimed Minnette, with a scornful flash of her black eyes.
"Little goose!" said Gipsy, rather contemptuously; "what are you afraidof? Go! it won't hurt you."
"Oh, no, no!--no, no!--no, no!" cried the child, crouching farther backin terror. "It's too dreadful. I can't listen to such awful things."
"Let her stay," said Miss Hagar, seating herself moodily. "Time enoughfor her--poor, trembling dove!--to know the future when its storm-cloudsgather darkly over her head. Let her alone. One day you may all think ofmy words to-night."
"There! there! don't make a fool of yourself any longer, Hagar,"impatiently broke in the doctor. "Leave the little simpletons in peace,and don't bother their brains with such stuff."
"Stuff!" repeated Miss Hagar, her eyes kindling with indignation. "Takecare; lest I tell _you_ a fate more awful still. I speak as I aminspired; and no mortal man shall hinder me."
"Well, croak away," said her brother, angrily, "but never again in mypresence. I never knew such an old fool!" he muttered to himself in alower tone.
He started back almost in terror, as he ceased; for standing by hisside, with her eyes fairly blazing upon him with a wild, intense gaze,was the elfish Gipsy. She looked so like some golden sprite--so smalland dark, with such an insufferable light in her burning eyes--that heactually shrank in superstitious terror from her.
Without a word, she glided away, and joined Archie in the corner, whowas doing his best to cheer and amuse the timid Celeste.
During the rest of the evening, Gipsy was unusually silent and still;and her little face would at times wear a puzzled, thoughtful look, allunused to it.
"What in the world's got into you, Gipsy?" asked Archie, at length, insurprise. "What are you looking so solemn about?"
"Archie," she said, looking up solemnly in his face, "am I _possessed_?"
"Possessed! Why, yes, I should say you were--possessed by the veryspirit of mischief!"
"Oh, Archie, it's not that. Don't you know it tells in the Bible aboutpeople being possessed with demons? Now, Archie, do you think I am?"
"What a question! No; of course not, you little goose. Why?"
"Because when _he_," pointing to the doctor, "said what he did, I justfelt as if something within me was forcing me to catch him by the throatand kill him. And, Archie, I could hardly keep from doing it; and I dobelieve I'm possessed."
This answer seemed to Master Archie so comical that he went off intoanother roar of laughter; and in the midst of it, he rolled off his seatupon the floor--which event added to his paroxysm of delight.
The doctor growled out certain anathemas at this ill-timed mirth, andordered Master Rivers off to bed. Then Miss Hagar folded up her work,and taking Celeste with her, sought her own room, where a littletrundle-bed had been prepared for the child. And Minnette--who, muchagainst her will, was to share her room with Gipsy, for whom she had noparticular love--got up and lit the night-lamp, and, followed, by thewillful fay, betook herself to rest.
The next morning dawned clear, sunshiny and bright. Immediately afterbreakfast, Gipsy mounted Mignonne, and set out to encounter the stormwhich she knew awaited her at Sunset Hall.