Their acquaintance had evidently advanced since that anxious evening

when she had urged upon Bram the intelligence of the duel between Hyde

and Neil Semple; for Bram gave her the flowers without embarrassment,

and she buried her sweet face in their sweet petals, and then lifted it

with a smile at once grateful and confidential. Then they began to talk

of Katherine.

"She was so beautiful and so kind," said Miriam; "just a week since

she passed here, with some violets in her hand; and, when she saw me,

she ran up the steps, and said, 'I have brought them for you;' and she

clasped my fingers, and looked so pleasantly in my face. If I had a

sister, Bram, I think she would smile at me in the same way."

"Very grateful to you was Katharine. All you did about the duel, I told

her. She knows her husband had not been alive to-day, but for you. O

Miriam, if you had not spoken!"

"I should have had the stain of blood on my conscience. I did right to

speak. My grandfather said to me, 'You did quite right, my dear.'"

Then Bram told her all the little things that had grieved him, and they

talked as dear companions might talk; only, beneath all the common words

of daily life, there was some subtile sweetness that made their voices

low and their glances shy and tremulous.

It was not more than an hour ere Cohen came home. He looked quickly at

the young people, and then stood by Bram, and began to talk courteously

of passing events. Miriam leaned, listening, against a magnificent

"apostle's cabinet" in black oak--one of those famous ones made in

Nuremburg in the fifteenth century, with locks and hinges of

hammered-steel work, and finely chased handles of the same material.

Against its carved and pillared background her dark drapery fell in

almost unnoticed grace; but her fair face and small hands, with the mass

of white narcissus in them, had a singular and alluring beauty. She

affected Bram as something sweetly supernatural might have done. It was

an effort for him to answer Cohen; he felt as if it would be impossible

for him to go away.

But the clock struck the hour, and the shop boy began to put up the

shutters; and the old man walked to the door, taking Bram with him. Then

Miriam, smiling her farewell, passed like a shadow into the darker

shadows beyond; and Bram went home, wondering to find that she had cast

out of his heart hatred, malice, fretful worry, and all

uncharitableness. How could he blend them with thoughts of her? and how

could he forget the slim, dark-robed figure, or the lovely face against

the old black kas, crowned with its twelve sombre figures, or the

white slender hands holding the white fragrant flowers?




readonlinefreebook.com Copyright 2016 - 2024