FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144  
145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   >>   >|  
rate act, this wild, young maid with Nathaniel Bacon's hair in the locket against her heart, and as fiery blood as his in her veins, that it should come in good time, but that I was under the leadership of others and not my own. "Then as soon as may be, Harry," she persisted, "for sure I should die of shame were my plants standing and the others cut, and Harry, sure it could not be at all, were it not for my fine gowns which the 'Golden Horn' brought over from England!" With that she laughed, and stood aside to let me pass, but suddenly, as I touched her in the narrow way, her mood changed, and the woman in her came uppermost, though not to her shaking. But she caught hold of my right arm with her two little hands and pressed her fair cheek against my shoulder with that modest boldness of a maid when she is assured of love, and whispered: "Harry, if the militia is ordered out they say they will not fire, but--if thou be wounded, Harry, 'tis I will nurse thee, and no other, and--Harry, cut all the plants that thou art able, before they come." Then she let me go, and I went forth thinking that here was a helpmeet for a soldier in such times as these, and how I gloried in her because she held her love as one with glory. Round to the stable for my horse I stole, and it was very dark, with a soft smother of darkness because of a heavy mist, and the moon not up, and I had backed my horse out of his stall and was about to mount him, before I was aware of a dark figure lurking in shadow, and made out by the long sweep of the garments that it was a woman. I paused, and looked intently into the shadow, where she stood so silently that she might have deceived me had it not been for a flutter of her cloak in a stray wind. "Who goes there?" I called out softly, but I knew well enough. 'Tis sometimes a stain on a man's manhood, the hatred he can bear to a woman who is continually between him and his will, and his keen apprehension of her as a sort of a cat under cover beside his path. So I knew well enough it was Catherine Cavendish, and indeed I marvelled that I had gotten thus far without meeting her. She stepped forward with no more ado when I accosted her, and spoke, but with great caution. "What do you, Master Wingfield?" she whispered. "I go on my own business, an it please you, Madam," I answered something curtly, and I have since shamed myself with the memory of it, for she was a woman. "It pleases me not, nor
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144  
145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
shadow
 

plants

 

whispered

 

called

 

softly

 
manhood
 
hatred
 

Nathaniel

 
lurking
 

figure


garments

 

paused

 
deceived
 

flutter

 
silently
 

looked

 
intently
 
continually
 

Master

 

Wingfield


business

 

accosted

 

caution

 

memory

 

pleases

 

shamed

 

answered

 

curtly

 

apprehension

 

Catherine


Cavendish

 
meeting
 

stepped

 

forward

 

marvelled

 
shaking
 

caught

 
uppermost
 

narrow

 
changed

shoulder
 

modest

 
boldness
 
pressed
 

touched

 

suddenly

 
Golden
 

standing

 
brought
 

persisted