Borne on the Wind.

Southland Times, Issue 19381, 3 September 1904, Page 1 (Supplement)

Borne on the Wind.

When Professor Carrollton opened hia wide front door and looked out upon the beauty of the new white world, he started back from a singular object lying upon his door mat, There wore flecks of snow upon it and a soft, feathery wreath lay lovingly , about ifc. Professor Carrollton stared blanky down, i " I suppose some idiot has done it ju6t to be funny. Original idea, certainly. It's— it must be a— a woman's hat!" He gazed fixedly at it, forgetful of the rare beauty spread about him. The voice of the narrow river at the bottom of thc torraco was strangely hushed by the whirled and drifted snow, The dark old- pines bent humbly beneath their unwonted burden. Naked limbs blossomed into lily-white lovliness. The screaming, drifting wind had howled itself to sleep last night in the midst of the snow storm and tho last of the feathery burden had found easy resting places. The smoke from an engine flirting its train of cars around the hill just across the narrow river trailed back like a mighty plume. Mr. Carrollton started when the engine shrieked. There seemed to be a note of derisive laughter in the sound. " A hat, a woman's hat here at my door!" His glance went scarchingly down the terrace and up and down the road that wandered out from tbe village and around his own special hill to the lovely snow-covered country beyond. There was no tracl; of foot or wheel or cutter anywhere. The bridge lying across the river was like unblemished marble. On the opposite bill the track of the railway showed, two glistening black lines on a level with Mr. Carroll ton's piazza. •■ It — it won't iV> to leave itheie." Mr. Carrollton was already beginning to feel tbe uneasiness of guilty possession. He picked tbe hat up gingerly and took it to his study table, where he dropped iti among the litter of hooks, papers nnd mounted butterflies'. He regarded it seriously as it lay there, with its briin titled coquettishly against an inkstand. It was as soft and brown and vevelty as the professor's favourite caterpillar. I There were three curling plumes as rich and brown and lustrous as the wings of the finest moth he had ever discovered. Somehow, the thing all soft and brown "and beautiful went straight to the professor's heart. lie touched tbe plumes delicately with his long white lingers and looked at tbem with puzzled eyes. , f A subtle perfume rose from the dainty mass of plumes and velvet. It was liko the fragrance of violets blooming secretly under brown, fallen leaves. The professor loved violets', and he began to feel a distinct fondness for the pretty feminine trifle on bis study table. He had known very littlo of women. His life had been devoted to the real butterflies and their brethren of air and sod. To be sure there had been his mother. Her devotion had filled ami satisfied his early life, when as a studious and not over-strong boy he had been kept always in tbc seclusion of his stately old home. Then there had been college and after tbat — Peggy. But Peggy hnd lasted through only one bright summer— a summer, so far as Tony Carrollton was concerned, unmarked by flight of bee or moth or butterfly. His mother had been shocked aud" angered when she came to know that the pretty visitor over at the Moores' belonged to tbe family of De Lains. There had been a family feud something like forty years ago. Mrs. Carrollton let go of her health when she discovered her son's inclination toward forgiveness and reconciliation. The doctor ordered her abroad, and Tony must, perforce, accompany her. 11. Troubles travel in pairs. With his mother's death came financial losses and a poverty that a gentleman could ask no woman to share. But it turned Tony's butterflies to account. When this had been accomplished the timely death of a miserly cousin mended Tony's fortunes. He came back to the fine old place half expecting to find Peggy peeping over the hedge at him as he had seen her that wonderful first day so many summers ago, when she had been a visitor at the Moore's, next door. Tbe Moores were there, old and deaf and l gray and lonely with the young ones away in j nests of their own, but there was no sign of Peggy's bright brown head above the cuony- j nius hedge. He at first glanced often at the place where the shadow of oaks kept the hedge low, but after a while he returned to the butterflies. He had been content with the things that creep and crawl and fly. Tho old servants had come home to him and he felt no lack. There wn_ only tho little ache that Peggy hud left him. He had heard incidentally of her marriage, but he had asked no questions. She hRd slipped out of his life na a butterfly sometimes escaped his net. He had never cared to know who had won her. _ The neighbourhood had grown away from him. There were new people. He liked his books and his insects better. Because of this, or for Peggy's sake, he was a stranger to womankind. Gentle and kindly and tender of heart, he lived alone. And now ho remembered that ifc was St. Valentine's day, and here among the litter on his study table reposed a woman's bonnet, holding his eyes with its singular subtle fascination and tilling the room with the perfume of hidden violets. He glanced guiltily towards the windows and listened with his oar turned to the closed door for a chance step in the hall. There was only the snowy landscape outside the windows and the only sound that reached him was Clocs' cheerful clatter in the far away kitchen. He stretched out his hand timidly and stroked the soft velvet and tho plumes curled themselves about his fingers. A sunbeam, early abroad, slipped through the window and nested among the velvet folds, turning their brown to gold. The professor smiled. It was as if the pretty thing had responded to his touch. All at once the old house seemed lonely and poverty-stricken, in spite of its grandeur. There camo to the man a longing for the swish of feminine garments, tho sweetness of a presence that means more than that of the rarest moth. He realised that this house was bare for the want of feminine touches. He felt shrivelled and old and lonesome. And the sunbeam, grown bolder, danced gaily among the plumes and the violet fragrance was more preemptible. The professor pi eked tho hat up tenderly and turned it about- in his hands, looking at it curiously. He wondered who had worn it in thc abstracted way tbat ho would havewondered about a curious and interesting wing that might drift to him from some unclassified species of moth. Ho rememborcd with a little start that the incident was unusual and that the thing was a joke that somebody, doubtless, was even now laughing over. Still, there was about the mass x»f feathers and velvet a sort of individual impress tbat his sensitive nature felt. A woman had worn tho hat and her personality had infected it. The hat meant the woman. The professor, felt the presence. Yet it must , have been placed on his door mat by some lover of fun. If it was a valentine there ought to be a message. The reasoning was logical, and a search revealed a tiny kid purse securely pinned to the silken lining of the hat. The professor unfastened the purse, and replacing the hat, opened the silver clasp, stood with the bit of kid in his hand. It waa

heavy for its size, and fastened with a slender silver clasp. He opened it and dropped it quickly. Two small gold coins rolled across the carpet, and an object, small and gray and tipped with -shining silver, proi truded from the open purse. The professor sat -down-juid stared blauk- \ ly at it. After a while "he took it in his , hand. It was a tiny rabbit's foot, velvety i and silver-mounted. The most potent of 1 all " cunjer charms." He smiled and pulled I his handsome moustache thoughtfully. His , , eyes turned towards thc fire, reflectively. , He recollected tbe laughing face of a little brown-eyed girl who bad expressed a desire for a talisman like this. He recalled the long night that he and Uncle Absalom bad spent waiting for the only rabbit, according. - to Uncle Absolom's philosphy, that could furnish the correct left hind foot. Tbe mounting must be of a bit of silver found at the crossing of roads This had been accomplished in a manner winked at by Uncle Absalom and satisfactory to Tony. He had supervised tbe mounting and engraving himself after arduous toil, furnishing the inscription. He laughed now and took the bit of fur in his band, Were there faint lines on the silver ? lie adjusted his glasses and bent nearer. , i " Will you who owns so many charms Keep this one with the rest ? And may it shield you from all harms And bring you Fortune's best." Tho professor rend the faint linos with bulging eyes. "It is tbe little rabbit's tout tbat I gave to Peggy!" He laid it on the table and gathered up the purse of coins and put theni beside it. Superstitions long forgotten stirred and strengthened confronted him. By what occult path had tbe gruesome little talisman found its way back to him, and why had it brought to him a wo J man's dainty hat? Tony exonerated from blame the merely hnmau agency that he had hastily accused. 111. A moment later in the commonplace presence of Aunt Cloe's dimpled cakes and steaming coffee he tried to believe that he had dozed over tho library fire and dreamed a foolish dream and looked upon an unreal vision. But in bis heart he knew that under a carefully spread newspaper the hat and the rabbit's foot lay upon his table. He was scarcely back after his basly breakfast when there was a stamping of feet j in tbe hall and old Cupid, throwing wide the I door, admitted Demminghnm. The professor always felt toward bis latest book as a mother does towards her newest baby. Faults may develop later, but now there was only the joy of attained ideals. And Demmingham was tlie professor's publisher and the visit unexpected. The hat. the purse and the rabbit's foot were forgot ton and thc professor was lost in tbe delights of an enormous welcome. j " I'm in a dilemma Carrollton. It's not ! about the book that I have come. That's ! all right. The illustrator appreciated your \ specimens. A brilliant idea brought me. My niece at Darefield is getting married to-morrow. A party of us are on the way. Last night, just before we drew np at yoiiv station one of the women elected to stand upon the rear platform in spite of a bowling gale and the advice of wiser friends. The wind snatched her hat and carried it away. " It did?" The professor reddened. " Yes, and she refuses to move a peg without it. So we are stranded for the want of — not a horsosboe nail, but a woman's hat." Demmingham laughed, the professor glanced thoughtfully out of the window where two steel lines swept round tbe snowy hillside. " The women nre chatting. The men are searchiug for tbc hat. I only bave acted. Of course, the hat is under the' snow or in the river. There is not a hat shop in the place. So I have come to you. I knew that you could induce some lady friend to pait with her bonnet. I didn't tell the women. Wo are all strangers here. I came straight to you, feeling that you would be able " Demmingham caught sight of his friend's dismayed countenance. " I — l forgot yonr antipathy to petticoats," he stammered. "'l'll see what I can do," ho said. -I know a few women — the curate's wife and old Mrs. Moore. I— l feel sure that I shall be able to help you." There was a twinkle in his fine blue eyes. The publisher wrung his hand gratefully. " I'll go and leave you free to act upon my brilliant suggestion. You'll drive down to the hotel with the result, won't you? Our train is due in two-hours." Mr. Uemmingham's vehicle was barely out of sight when the Professor gave Cupid a shapeless bundle to be taken at once to tbe hotel. It was when Cupid was half way to the village that thc professor's eye fell upon the purse with the rabbit's foot and coins lying beside it. He understood at once that he must not retain these. There was nothing for it now but to go to Demmingham and make a clean breast of the whole matter. He decided to do this, with certain reservations. And be must be content to wonder how his own gift to Peggy had come back to him. There were always things that one nni3t not know. He waited nervously in the little hotel parlor. Tbe door opened nnd a brown bat with curling plumes was thrust in. There was a confused vision of puffy brown hair, a bright, laughing face and soft brown draperies. With the vision came a rush of old memories and the faint perfume of violets. And then there was a low. clear voice. "I beg your pardon. They told me that the gentleman, who restored my hat was waiting here. Mr. Demmingham and I w«re going to call upon you. I wanted to know if there was anything with the hat. I thought if you told us where you had found it wc might recover a little keepsake that I valued greatly. There was a little kid purse pinned to the lining of the hat — my new suit bad no pockets, and the chain attached to my — my little keepsake broke. I put it th_.re for safekeeping." "I came to bring it to you. I opened ib and — Peggy, I somehow forgot." "Tony! Are you really Tony?" She leaned towards him and the brown plumes quivered under his very eyes. " Yes. Your dear little hat came to me of its own accord. I didn't quite ".now what to do. There's never been any woman in my house. I thought it was some ody's joke — a valentine, you know. When I found thc little charm I knew it, but no thought of seeing you here ever came to me. We used almost to believe in the charm." " And now we quite do," she said gently, tears in her pretty eyes. " Hasn't the charm brought you to mc, Tony ? " She held out her hands and he took them. " They made US run away from each other," she went on. 1 ' and I suppose we tried to forgot. Did you manage it, Tony?" " No," he said simply, holding her hands "Neither did I. My husband — he died more than a year ago — knew about it. We thought you lived abroad. They gave me to him and ho took me, because in that way I could have the money that he could need only a little while, and afterward. It was he himself who told me that afterward when I met you there would be no ono to bother about the old feud. Don't you— don't you understand, Tony?" And the Professor understood in the orthodox way.