Chapter XIX: Hilda

Pink roses and red swung to and fro in the sunshine as they climbed the Doctor's whitewashed porch. Big bees hummed their sleepy drone from the fragrant hearts of the flowers, and a humming-bird whirred busily in and out in search of the honeysuckle that he loved. Up-stairs Mrs. Morgan was darning stockings in the coolest room in the house,--a bedroom with a northern exposure. A white shirt-waist gave a puffy look to a body that could ill endure such appearance of enlargement, and a black belt accentuated the amplitude of girth that it encircled. The good lady sat in an armless rocking-chair, or rather _on_ it, for she was by no means contained therein, but bulged over and beyond at all points. Her feet, shod in heelless black slippers, above which puffed white stockings, rested upon a low footstool, and her widespread knees provided a generous lap for the support of her supply of socks and her implements,--her needle-book' and darning-gourd and balls of cotton. She had that look of comfort that fat people seem to radiate even when it is evident that physical annoyance is their own share.

Discomfort had no part in the picture that Mrs. Morgan presented, however, for a cool breeze gently ruffled her hair, and her eyes, when she lifted them from her work, rested contentedly on the fertile fields of the Doctor's farm, which were thriving, under Bob's management. She nodded with, pursed-up lips, as she wove her little lattices in heel and toe.

"He's doing better than ever Ah thought he would," she murmured. "Better, even, than Ah dared to hope,--thank God!"

Up and down, over and under, in and out went her needle.

"It's such a joy to Henry to have him so."

The scissors snipped a thread at the end of a darn, and a new hole displayed its ravage over the yellow surface of the gourd.

"It's been going on some months now, bless him! Ah'd like to know how he started in. Ah believe mahself it's Sydney."

The work sank into her lap for a space, while her shrewd eyes roamed over the fields, and sought Buck Mountain beyond, thrusting its topmost clump of chestnut-trees against the sky. She nodded to her thoughts as she picked up the unfinished sock.

"She's a wise mother who knows where her son ties his horse, and Ah confess Ah haven't always known, but it strikes me it's mostly the Oakwood hitching-post."

She smiled at her own sagacity.

"Not that Sydney'd have him. Though she might do a great deal worse, a great deal worse," she added, loyally. "But he cares for her enough to want to please her, and it takes the best to satisfy Sydney."

A step on the stairs outside made itself heard.

"Come in, dear. Ah was just thinking about you."

Bob flung his cap on the bed, sat down on a cricket beside his mother, and leaned his head against her shoulder.

"Tired, dear?"

"No, just hot. I've been over every field on the farm since breakfast."

"In all this sun!"

"Do you think it ought to cease to shine to shade your boy? There'll be a right smart crop this year."

"So your father was telling me yesterday."

"I've got better hands than usual."

"And they have a better overseer."

She let fall the stocking from her left hand and patted the shock of black hair resting on her shoulder. Silence fell between them--the embarrassment that comes from the broaching of a delicate subject.

"It's hard work," he sighed, and her mother-love knew that he did not refer to the management of the farm.

"We all have our dragons to fight, and yours is one of the hardest kind. Ah'm sure he's growing weaker, though."

"But he's still in the ring," groaned Bob, with a comical look, and they laughed in sympathy.

"I ought to have begun on him long years ago for your sake, ma dear, but--it wasn't you!" he blurted out, and hastened to kiss her, lest she be offended.

She could not help just a little sigh.

"It's what happens to most mothers, and we are thankful for the result, and put our vanity into our pocket."

"I don't want you to suppose that I'm such a puppy as to believe that she--you know who--cares for me--that way, you know. But I happened to think one day when--well, never mind what happened--I just thought that while she might never care anyway, she was dead sure not to if I went on being the kind of thing I was."

"True, dear, and even if she never did,"--how she longed to give him hope, as she had given him every toy he asked for in his baby days! But wisdom came to her now, and love gave her strength,--"even if she never did, the victory would still be a victory."

"And you'd care, anyway. Oh, mothers are good things! Do you mind my telling you-all this?"

He was sitting before her now, with his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands. She leaned forward and kissed him.

"You've given me the greatest happiness Ah've known for years, dear."

He pulled at the stockings in her lap.

"I don't think I've had much show lately, do you?"

"You mean----?"

"Oh, well, I reckon I don't mean anything. It's all in the game. There's father," as a cry of "O-oh, Sophy!" was heard below. "Sophy's up here in the north room, dad," he called, eliciting from his mother the expected--

"You impertinent boy!"

The Doctor came in, bringing with him an air of excitement that made Bob cry,--

"What's up?"

Mrs. Morgan laid down her half-darned sock in anticipation.

"You never can guess the latest development."

"Ah've no desire to, Henry. Ah'd rather hear it at once."

"Who do you think's come?"

"Where?"

"To the Neighborhood."

"Henry, don't be so aggravating! Why don't you-all tell what you've got to tell, if you _have_ got anything to tell."

This sarcasm drove on the Doctor to disclosure.

"Baron von Rittenheim's sister-in-law."

"His sister-in-law!" cried Bob.

"What in the world will he do with her in that cabin of his?" ejaculated Mrs. Morgan.

"Is she pretty?" This from Bob.

The Doctor was quite satisfied with the sensation he had aroused, and sat down to tell his story comfortably.

"Ah've just come from Oakwood, and Sydney told me. It seems she turned up last night after the Baron got home from the picnic; drove out from Asheville. He had to go and get Melissa Yarebrough to come and look after her."

"He wasn't expecting her, then?"

"Sydney says no. Of course he couldn't ask visitors to that shack of his."

"Ah suppose she hadn't any idea he was living that-a-way."

"Ah reckon not. She's his brother Maximilian's wife, or widow, rather, for she brought him the news of his brother's death. Sydney says he was quite broken up about it when he came over soon this morning to ask Mrs. Carroll if she would take her in. The old lady'd gone to fetch her when Ah got there."

"Did you wait?"

"You bet!"

"Is she pretty?" Bob asked again, with some insistence. Perhaps the Baron--how could he, though? But there was at least a chance of his falling in love with his own countrywoman.

"Pretty? I should say so! She looks like a lovely child, or an angel on a Christmas card, or something. Oh, you needn't grin. She won't look at you!"

"Saving all her looks for you, I suppose! Can she speak English?"

"Yes; but not enough to hurt anything. You'd ought to have seen her run up to Sydney, just like a little girl, and cry out, 'Oh, I thank you for that you have been so kind, every one, to my dear Friedrich!'"

"How did Sydney take that?" Mrs. Morgan could not resist a glance at her son.

"Oh, Sydney always does everything all right."

"What did she say to you, dad?"

"Oh, something about Friedrich telling her that Mrs. Carroll and Ah were his best friends."

"How long's she going to stay?"

"Ah don't know. Ah came away right off."

At Oakwood Baroness Hilda von Rittenheim's coming partook of the nature of an event. Sydney, who never had happened to hear even her name mentioned, went about during the time of her grandmother's absence in a state of agreeable anticipation. She was curious to see this unexpected arrival, and she took pleasure in arranging flowers in her room, and in shading the windows to produce the most desirable light.

"It will please him," she thought, "for us to be nice to her. Poor thing, she's lost all she cared for in the world; everybody ought to be nice to her." And she thought how happy she was herself, and resolved to be as kind as she knew how to be to the new-comer.

Sydney had a strong reluctance to face emotional or spiritual crises, and not even after her conversation on the bridge did she acknowledge to herself that von Rittenheim loved her, or that she cared for him. She was content to feel the glow that warmed her when she knew that she was the princess of his fable, and not to analyze her own feeling further, or to posit in him more than admiration.

Americans usually think of German women as fat and affectionate, or, if they are extremists, as "fit only to propagate their own undesirable race." Sydney formulated no idea of Hilda's appearance, but she found herself none the less surprised when she and Dr. Morgan watched from the window the tiny figure in its black robes, descending from the carriage.

"Why, the Baron said she was twenty-five, but she doesn't look any older than I do," she cried, and she flew down the steps to welcome her.

Hilda's little speech of thanks was natural and pretty, and Sydney liked her at once because she liked Friedrich. Katrina was delighted with her. Tom declared that he could listen to that accent forever, and John went into absurd raptures that were more serious than they sounded. Even Mrs. Carroll, usually not enthusiastic, granted her to be "Pretty? Yes, even lovely. And charming? Very."

Hilda must have felt herself to be under scrutiny during the day, yet she betrayed no knowledge of it. Her behavior was perfect. Several times she alluded to Max.

"Poor Max! The shock of his death was to me severe. Have I known Friedrich long? Oh, yes, indeed. Before ever I met Maximilian. I was living with my aunt in Heidelberg when he was at the University. I was a little girl then. Ah, yes, Friedrich always was _nett_ to me, even so before Max. Yes, always shall I love Friedrich."

It occurred to Sydney that there was a shade too much insistence on this mutual affection, but she berated herself for a "jealous piece," and ordered Uncle Jimmy to bring out on the lawn coffee as well as tea, in deference to her guest's probable predilection.

"Yes, dear Frau Carroll," said Hilda, in answer to a question. "Indeed, have I much to talk with him. He comes this evening to see me. I have much to tell him and to hear from him."

Over her cup she glanced shrewdly at Sydney, who was enraged to feel herself blushing.

When Baron von Rittenheim appeared in the evening, Sydney and the Schuylers and John were just starting for the Hugers' dance.

"Surely you will go," the little Baroness had said, "and you will not think of me one time."

"You ask too much," murmured John.

She glanced at her mourning with a look that might have meant yearning for Max, or a desire to go to the ball.

Then she raised her eyes to Friedrich's, and Sydney was surprised to see a look of anger sweep over her childish face. Seeking its cause she found von Rittenheim's eyes fixed on herself, so full of love and longing and sadness that her one wish was to comfort him. Involuntarily she took a step towards him, and held out her hands. Then she remembered herself, and swept him a low courtesy, as if in thanks for the admiration of his gaze.

"You like my frock, M. le Baron?" she asked.

Von Rittenheim's eyes went to the fluffy white mass lying on the floor, and rose again to her face.

"He's speechless with rapture, Sydney," said John.

"I am, indeed," said Friedrich, bowing with his hand on his heart.

"Then come on, Sydney, and let language flow once more." And Tom dexterously threw her cape over her shoulders.

"See that? I've learned to do that really well since I was married. I've been practising in private. Mrs. Schuyler, allow me." And he repeated his performance and swept his flock before him to the door.