Page:Harper's New Monthly Magazine - v109.djvu/96

82 the noise and open-air clamor that the return of gentlemen at the close of a day brings to a silent house.

An hour and more passed and no one had been to seek Eileen, and she felt herself forgotten. The tears were standing in her eyes, when suddenly the door was pushed open and Nurse Phaire came in. The old woman saw the figure of Eileen against the dusky window where she waited.

"Mistress Eileen! Mistress Eileen! the master has been calling for you! What have you been doing not to come down? Then was I must find the linen and put those lazy girls to set two chambers ready for the gentlemen with him, for their horses are overridden and they can go no farther to-night. Ah, but if you had known who was here with his Honor, you would have run down fast enough, I promise you. But come now, my lamb; I have a sight for you to see."

She took the reluctant girl by the hand and pulled her from the window and out into the dark passage, where a lighted candle stood. Without allowing her time to pause, the nurse hurried her along till they came to a narrow passage where one could hardly pass, at the end of which was a tiny flight of steps and a narrow door. This the nurse opened with a key, and in another moment the two stood in a narrow dark gallery that ran along the north end of the hall. Laying her hand upon Eileen's mouth, the old woman drew her silently forward into the centre of the gallery.

Below in the hall a huge fire of logs was burning on the flat hearthstone, and the flames with a galloping sound were rushing up the great black chimney.

The dark hall was full of their light; they and the quivering radiances that streamed from them seemed to rejoice in the hall as if in a playground they themselves had chosen; they leaped and fought and played with a gayety more brilliant than is shown by any other children of the summer sun.

Sideways, over against the fire, was a black oaken seat heaped with skins and furs. Upon them, carelessly stretched, lay a man in his first youth, sleeping sound. His whole attitude expressed the healthful weariness of the day's hunting and the pleasure of rest. He was dressed in a suit of dark-colored velvet, which Eileen recognized as belonging to her father. The strong curling locks of hair upon his head and neck had the color of the flame-light; but for all this grace of youth, his face was that of a man, and his limbs, so negligently thrown down to sleep, appeared lengthy and strong.

"Mistress Eileen," whispered the nurse, "see how he's sleeping—for all the world like an innocent child. Thank your nurse, my lamb, for she had him washed, and dressed in the master's second-best, and got him down before the rest of them. Take up your gown now, child of my heart, and run down as quick as the wind, and as quiet, and clap the ring upon him while he's sleeping. Holy saints, bless the boy; he's tired out."

"Oh, I cannot, nurse; I am afraid. If he wakened and caught me, I should be lost," whispered Eileen, in great fear.

"Give me the ring, then, silly child," said the old woman, crossly. "You can go quick and I go slow, and some one may be coming into the hall. Stay there, then, and watch, if you are afraid." Grumbling under her breath, the old woman hobbled along to the gallery door.

Eileen waited a moment, gazing down upon the young man's heavy sleep, while she wrung her hands together in distress. To her nurse, her cousin Estercel was but a splendid child; to her he was the burning spirit of life itself, at once terrible and beautiful, offering her sharp arrows and an enchanted cup.

She could hear that her nurse was near the bottom of the winding stone stair; she could not bear to see her approach the youth with the ring. As though her feet were winged, she fled back through the dark passages to her own chamber and cast herself in an agony of shame upon the floor.

"Oh, I am a very bold girl," she cried to herself. "How could I think to do such a thing? If he finds it out, he will despise me forever, and then I shall die in earnest."

Presently in came her nurse, laughing, and carrying two wax lights with her.

"Get up, get up, Mistress Eileen," she cried. "What is it you're doing lying there on the floor? and nothing but the best of good fortune in store for you now from