Page:Harper's New Monthly Magazine - v109.djvu/97

Rh this out. The ring is on his finger and he's fast yet. He never stirred no more than the wolf that owned the skin that's under him. Quick now, Mistress Eileen, come and let me dress you; his Honor has sent word you are to come to the table to-night, and I have got some things out of the box for you. What's that? The tears running down out of your eyes? Stop that nonsense directly, Mistress Eileen. Come and kiss your old nurse, my pretty lamb—your old nurse that loves you,—and let me dress you and make you as handsome as the heavenly stars."

According to long use and wont, the nurse took hold of her charge, undressed and bathed her, combed her thick curls while Eileen fretted; put on her an underdress of white homespun wool, and over it a garment of white silk, the piece of which had been brought over from France but five years before.

If Eileen had any pleasure in the toilet, her nurse had twenty times as much. Words cannot tell the delight of the nurse's heart in her young nursling that grows into beauty under her care as the tree blossoms under the gardener's hand. Eileen had grown tall enough now to reach for the fruit that grows on the boughs of the tree of life; her lips were ready for tasting it; and the old nurse felt that she could lie down in peace, once she saw her darling satisfied.

But Eileen herself knew care and dread. How could she bear to see the open sign of her long-cherished secret, under the eyes of all, upon a careless hand?

When at length she was fully dressed she stood before the brazen mirror, and the old woman bound round her head the narrow golden band with the white beryl-stone in the centre, that shed a pale lustre upon her forehead. Eileen looked in the mirror, that gave back an uncertain reflection like one seen in water. But she took no pleasure in what she saw, neither in her eyes, which were like a dark night of stars with a round white moon riding above, nor in her gown of silk, nor her thick locks. She only thought, "Oh, if I had but hair the color of the sunlight and eyes like Estercel's, he would not turn away from me."

But as she thought it a knock came to her door, and a voice in the passage to say that supper was served in the hall.

Eileen had no courage to set out by herself; her face was pale, and her nurse had to take her by the hand and lead her down to the door of the hall, as she had been long ago used to do. But when no escape was possible and Eileen must needs go in through the lit arch of the doorway, she cast away her fears and entered like a true daughter of her father's house.

The nurse, for as long as she could see in her corner by the door, watched her crossing the lower end of the hall in her streaming white garments, with her head well uplifted. As soon as the doorway's edge had hidden her, the old woman turned, and smiling to herself, hobbled back to the upper chamber. Then sitting down to rest in the chair, she fell fast asleep, for she was very old, and Eileen's father, too, had been a babe in her arms.

Some hours later she was suddenly awakened, and there was Eileen waiting at her knees, in a young ecstasy, her face like a dark rose for its wreath of smiles.

"Oh, nurse," she cried, clasping her hands together, "it is true, indeed it is, the charm of the ring. When I was got in the hall and had given my father good night, Estercel he came straight across to me; and he said, 'Will you sit by me at supper. Cousin Eileen?' And I was so glad. And all through the supper he talked to me and told me of the day's hunting and many matters besides. And now when my father desired me to leave them, he bade me good night most kindly, saying, 'Shall we meet again, Cousin Eileen?' And I am so glad. And many times he looked down at the ring upon his hand, and I could see he was thinking of it; and he asked me if I believed in the fairies, and whether I had seen them, and if there was any hurt in fairy gold. And, oh, nurse, charm or no, I feel now I should never have done it, for I cannot bear to deceive."

"Tut, tut, and nonsense!" said the old nurse, crossly, for she hated to be awakened from her sleep. "Where's the deceiving? Get up from there, Mistress Eileen, and take off your silk dress, and get into your bed. I'm perished sitting here."

But the old nurse's arms were open to