Page:Harper's New Monthly Magazine - v109.djvu/95

Rh gaze at the wonder of the unsoiled nest, that had been the house of such delight, and that so soon now would be left cold.

But, once she turned, it was very fast she ran up through the wood to carry her treasure to her wise nurse, who awaited her.

As Eileen ran up the castle slope she began to be troubled. "Oh, nurse," she cried, as she gained the upper room, "what are we going to do? I have taken the ring back again; it is quite warm; but how in the world will we get my cousin Estercel to put it on his finger? I wonder I never thought of that till now."

"Where have you got the ring, my lamb?" asked the nurse, and Eileen gave it to her.

The old woman closed her eyes and held it tight in the palm of her hand. "It is indeed quite warm," she said, presently. "There is another heart in it altogether now. God bless the little birds for as innocent as they are. But see here now; I have a chain for you, Mistress Eileen, that I found in the box."

And as she spoke she strung the ring upon a light-linked chain and fastened it round Eileen's neck.

"There, my lamb," she said. "Keep it close and wear it night and day. The birds' charm is in it safe enough."

But Eileen's mind had returned to its care. "But, nurse," she said, "what about my cousin Estercel? The ring may hang round my neck for a twelve-month, for all the boldness or power I have to get it on to his finger."

"Leave it to me, my jewel," said the old nurse, "leave it to me. Have patience and I will find a way."

All the summer through Eileen waited, and she had the more patience because she felt always the secret of the ring next her heart; and because she believed in it and in the wonder that would come of it, maidenlike she had begun to fear. She was content to put off her happy days, and keep before her this promise of wonder that glorified all her future, like a rainbow that crosses a spring sky.

Eileen had the more leisure for her dreams, since serious matters occupied the attention of her father and of those gentlemen who were his friends. In England, Charles and his Stuart Parliament; in Ireland, Catholic and Protestant, lords of the Pale and broken houses of the Irish nobility—were altogether at odds. The whole country was full of those uneasy rumors of threatening wars that send men riding and speaking much secretly together. Therefore Eileen, who was accounted by her father as still a child, and who, moreover, had no sister nor near kinswoman, was left much alone.

So it passed till, with the mists of October, Tyrone went hunting the stag. With the dawn Eileen's father rode away, and Eileen beside him to keep him company for the first miles of the way; then she must needs turn her horse's head and ride home again, for the hunt was too far and too fast for her, and, moreover, there were to be other matters on foot besides the stag.

Towards dusk Eileen stood by one of the hall windows watching the narrow road that wound down from the castle gate. The October mists were rising and cloaking the colors of the autumn trees; for an hour and more she stood dreaming and listening to the robins' song that came up from below. At last, with the deepening of the evening, color and song together faded away and the silence was for a while complete.

Then with a start Eileen lifted up her head, for she heard the sound of jaded, stumbling hoofs; and surely it was the sound of more men than rode out behind her father in the morning. While she listened, out of the dusk appeared figures, two horsemen that rode the winding white track and seemingly talked together, and one taller than the others who rode half his horse's length behind, and at the back of him again two serving-men. As they reached the foot of the steep castle slope, Eileen could hear the breathing of the sorely blown horses. Then she saw that the tallest of the horsemen dismounted and himself began to lead his horse up to the castle, speaking kindly to him as he did so.

Eileen saw that it was Estercel. Like an arrow she flew from the hall and up the stairway to her chamber above, for the ring seemed to burn her bosom.

From her chamber she heard a tramping and a shouting and a running to and fro of serving men and women, and all