第32章 A VISITOR FROM TOWN(3)

"I have not the remotest suspicion what you mean, Mr.Moodie," replied Hollingsworth; "nobody, to my knowledge, has called for Priscilla, except yourself.But come; we are losing time, and I have several things to say to you by the way.""And, Mr.Hollingsworth!" repeated Moodie.

"Well, again!" cried my friend rather impatiently."What now?""There is a lady here," said the old man; and his voice lost some of its wearisome hesitation."You will account it a very strange matter for me to talk about; but I chanced to know this lady when she was but a little child.If I am rightly informed, she has grown to be a very fine woman, and makes a brilliant figure in the world, with her beauty, and her talents, and her noble way of spending her riches.I should recognize this lady, so people tell me, by a magnificent flower in her hair.""What a rich tinge it gives to his colorless ideas, when he speaks of Zenobia!" I whispered to Hollingsworth."But how can there possibly be any interest or connecting link between him and her?""The old man, for years past," whispered Hollingsworth, "has been a little out of his right mind, as you probably see.""What I would inquire," resumed Moodie, "is whether this beautiful lady is kind to my poor Priscilla.""Very kind," said Hollingsworth.

"Does she love her?" asked Moodie.

"It should seem so," answered my friend."They are always together.""Like a gentlewoman and her maid-servant, I fancy?" suggested the old man.

There was something so singular in his way of saying this, that I could not resist the impulse to turn quite round, so as to catch a glimpse of his face, almost imagining that I should see another person than old Moodie.But there he sat, with the patched side of his face towards me.

"Like an elder and younger sister, rather," replied Hollingsworth.

"Ah!" said Moodie more complacently, for his latter tones had harshness and acidity in them,--" it would gladden my old heart to witness that.

If one thing would make me happier than another, Mr.Hollingsworth, it would be to see that beautiful lady holding my little girl by the hand.""Come along," said Hollingsworth, "and perhaps you may."After a little more delay on the part of our freakish visitor, they set forth together, old Moodie keeping a step or two behind Hollingsworth, so that the latter could not very conveniently look him in the face.Iremained under the tuft of maples, doing my utmost to draw an inference from the scene that had just passed.In spite of Hollingsworth's off-hand explanation, it did not strike me that our strange guest was really beside himself, but only that his mind needed screwing up, like an instrument long out of tune, the strings of which have ceased to vibrate smartly and sharply.Methought it would be profitable for us, projectors of a happy life, to welcome this old gray shadow, and cherish him as one of us, and let him creep about our domain, in order that he might be a little merrier for our sakes, and we, sometimes, a little sadder for his.

Human destinies look ominous without some perceptible intermixture of the sable or the gray.And then, too, should any of our fraternity grow feverish with an over-exulting sense of prosperity, it would be a sort of cooling regimen to slink off into the woods, and spend an hour, or a day, or as many days as might be requisite to the cure, in uninterrupted communion with this deplorable old Moodie!

Going homeward to dinner, I had a glimpse of him, behind the trunk of a tree, gazing earnestly towards a particular window of the farmhouse; and by and by Priscilla appeared at this window, playfully drawing along Zenobia, who looked as bright as the very day that was blazing down upon us, only not, by many degrees, so well advanced towards her noon.I was convinced that this pretty sight must have been purposely arranged by Priscilla for the old man to see.But either the girl held her too long, or her fondness was resented as too great a freedom; for Zenobia suddenly put Priscilla decidedly away, and gave her a haughty look, as from a mistress to a dependant.Old Moodie shook his head; and again and again I saw him shake it, as he withdrew along the road; and at the last point whence the farmhouse was visible, he turned and shook his uplifted staff.