Strange Stories

Observer, Volume 9, Issue 529, 9 February 1889, Page 14

Strange Stories

LISETTE. By Evelyn Thorp. T EWIS NOBTHBOP gained the open hall JU door stealthily— if so nonchalant a step as hi- could be called stealthly~and, taking his hat f-om where it hung on one of the pegs there, escaped into the Sabbath stillness. It was accented, not broken, by the soft twitter of early robins,' and the cooing of some placid doves. And there was a nameless stirring throughout all this yet barren nature which spoke to all the senses of the coming change. Under the funereal shade of the evergreens the winter's ice still lingered in white patches. But a purplish haze hung over the farther river bank, and it had suited the capricious mood of this fitful, ungoverened climate of ours to charge the early April day with some of the languid sultriness of the full-blown summer. Lewis Northrop had come out of the house because he felt it a sentimental outrage to tarn a deaf ear to the subtle solicitation of nature on such an atternoon as this ; but also, a little, because he had a curiosity. This curiosity was presently gratified, in the way he had expected it to be, by a glimpse of a grey dress on a bench far out of reach of the house. Lisette, afc the sound of the approaching footsteps, started guiltily. Tor a moment she seemed in doubt as to what attitude— of rebuke or toleration— she might expect from the intruder. But a glance at his face apparently reassured her, for she broke into a brilliant smile. Lewis had had few occasions to note before how bright and 'good' was the smile of this young gipsy- like maiden with the foreign face; when the august presence of her three female relatives (not very near relatives, they would have you understand) did not cast its appalling shadow over her. 'What are you doing out here, you young Sabbath breaker?' he inquired, falling lazily into the humorous view of the situation. She laughed out like a child. 'Fancy sitting shut up in that hot, dark parlour with Banyan's ' Pilgrim's Progress ' on such a day as this! Oh, I thought I should stifle ! I could not— could not— stand it another minute ! I had to ruu out. I suppose,' dubiously, with a changing countenance, ' I suppose they saw me— missed me ' 'Oh, I don't know,' Lewis said lightly. 'It won't make much difference, will it? Perhaps they'll think you're upstairs in your own room.' Lisstte shook her head at the suggestion. ' They wouldn't like—' she began and stopped. ' They wouldn't like you to be there any better. Is that so? Do those ' he was going to say ' old cats,' but he remembered in time that the elderly ladies in question were also more nearly related to himself and supplemented the expression with one ix-ore suitable. * Do my ancient relatives badger you so outrageously ?'" Lisetio glanced up in affright. ' No, no. Oh, they are very kind to me. Very good, you know,' she made haste eagerly to say,' "' lor they took me in and gave me a home when— when ' There was a pause occupied in suppressing a treacherous tieuubling 01 the full uppar lip, ' when clear papa died.' ' And a very happy home they have made for you, you poor little brown bird !' Lewis mentally commented. Aloud he said : ' And what have you done with yourself always. What do you do with yourself all day long in this place?' Do with myself ?' she repeated, hesitatingly. • Yes.' ' Well, there are always things to do around the house, you know,' she spoke slowly, and the brightness of her face had given place to a little pathetic look Lewis hated to see there, it seemed so cruelly illsuited to it, ' but I'm afraid I am very stupid about any useful work. You can't think,' her big dark eyes were solemnly raised to his, ' how many things I break and how awkward I am. Oh, its dreadful.' Her small, brown hands closed over each other with an unconsciously dramatic action - such an action as might have heen inherited from that unmentionable mother of hers, who had jumped ropes or performed at fairs. The Northrops had never investigated the accurate and awful particulars of the existence of the woman who had become connected, through the instrumentality of the Evil One, with the one headstrong and unmanageable offshoot of their house, of whom Lisette spoke, holding back the tears, as ' dear papa.' 'It must be dreadful,' assented Lewis, with gravity. ' Yes, indeed,' she sighed, without suspicion of levity on his part. ' And they make you pay I'or it, don't they:?' he continued. ' Pay ? Oh, no : I could not pay for anything I break,' she cried, in simply dismay. ' I have »o money, you know ! Not ever.' Lewis Korthrop blushed. He was enough of a Northrop to have always considered the stock about as good as could be found in a new county not noted for stock in a general way. But he was conscious of shame as he recognised the exact position of this friendless young creature in the house of the three antique maidens who now, owning its ancient homestead and preserving in a state of fridge!, crystallisation all its traditions, seemed the representative heads of the stock in question. 'I didn't mean pay in that sense,' he said. But then h suddenly seemed dillicuit to explain what his real meaning had been. ' Down there,' she said, craning her supple neck forward a little, * I am afraid you cannot see it — the evergreens are in the way — but there is such a lovely deep, deep pool, with the foliage all about it in summer ! The river makes a little bead, you know, and then the shore juts forward again, so that it closes the place in, like a tiuy lake. It's the very deepest green ! And so quiet and cool the very hottest day in summer. I love to go dowu there when I can,' she added with a strange little wistfulness. * It's lovely.' Lewis somewhat surprised his relatives the next day by remarking that he thought he should not

go back to the city at once. Miss Hannah said, ' Well, if his business permitted.' Bliss Jane said, 'The country was lovely just now.' Miss Catherine made some observation equally unenthusiastie. But all three of these elderly and congenially undemonstrative women heard the news with a deep satisfaction, all the same. Lewis was, of all their youthful kinsmen, the favourite. He had never been at any pains to secure their good-will. But in spite of that— perhaps because of it — he was then 1 well-beloved who, in course of time, would inherit the old Northrop acres and the concomitant fortune which, being hoarded with a rigid parsimony, was increasing every year. Lewis had always looked upon his periodical visits in the light of an infliction not to be escaped. He hated the reactionary atmosphere breathed by these old women, and their miserliness moved him to a contempt which fluctuated with his mood, from the active to tho passive tense. But now the days, with their growing fulness and warmth, passed from one to another without his being conscious eithev of the old irritation or the old boredom. To poor little Lisette these wore halcyon timc^, in all truth. In many ways Lewis brightened the child's life. Without his ever saying much, she was conscious that, unaggresaively but effectually, lie interposed between her and the old condition of things. She seemed to be able to slip away from the stony company oi Miss Hannah. Miss Jane, and Miss Catherine oftener than before. The bench under the evergreens caw tho supple young shape in the grey dress on many an afternoon, now brilliant with sunshine, now dapplcl with the quick-clouding changes of the April weather. And quite frequently also it happened that Lewis would stroll out casually as he had done that first Sunday afternoon, and presently the two would be in deep conversation. Lisette though she knew it not, being skillfully drawn out by a chance allusion or question, to fpeak of her life with her father; of those blissful, never-to-be-forgotten days when she had roamed with him over the Continent, these two Bohemians together (the only two creatures bearing the name of Northorp to whom any such term could ever have been applied), loving each other, bound up in each other, and quite content to do with little, to stop at the little inns, in the little places, when funds were low, and, alas ! with Arthur Northrop, handsome, lawl^s, blade sheop that he was, when were funds not low ? Never before since those days had flown had this poor little remaining Bohemian, this Ishmaolite, pent up amid the iunnutuble lav.:; avd proprieties of tho house of Northir.p and pining under its rigid bearing like a wild fcrast bird between the bars of the ca^;o. known such joy as hers when she pov.red out these t^ndor, tearful, rapturous reminiscences into Lawis' gravely attentive ear. Bat," alas ! such happiness could not last, and for gocd &ud sufficient reasons. One evening it had turned suddenly very wr.rin, and Miss Hannah had gone so fnr an to open the bow windows in the ground lioor parlour. Lewis, passing through the hall, hoard Miss Catherine's voice calling him from within. The three ladies, in their black robe:-, and each holding a palm-leaf fan, sat in somicircub.v conclave assembled. Lewis duopptcl into a chair and wailed for developments, possibly with a consciousness of what they vc-ra liki/iy to be. He was not mistaken. ' It is not the Northrop way to beat about the bush, Lewis,' began Miss Jane, ' and indeed there is no reason why we should in this case. You have been singling out Lisette" (they never seemed to frame tho obnoxious, frivolous name, without a protesting tiqhtenin;; of the iip?) ' ior a kindness, a consideration, since; you l;a\j been here, which we all think will prove enlreivrly deleterious to the g:vl, and we v.-i-ui ;h;U you would discontinue your present pi\ictiie in this direction.' 'Well, now, I'm glad you've spoken of this,' returned Lewis. ' I don't agivc vvi-.h you at all with regard to Lisetle. I don't know why you should treat her as though she \vere_ *i k-por, and I have no mind to do a= iuucii even \£ you enoose to.' Such words as these Miss Catherine had never heard from anyone belont;in t q to her before, and she said so, her in in old cheeks Hushing with anger. 4 Very well,' continued Lewis, coolly. 'Excuse me if I have expressed myself rather strongly. But since you »;ave the child a shelter, I think you might give her also a home. She is a bright, impulsive, impressionable young girl ' She is like her mother, I suppose,' broke in Miss Catherine, with a withering sarcasm. ' Well, perhaps, in her way,' objected Lewi?, with the masculine protest against feminine slander. 'Poor Arthur's wife was a good and charming widow.' ' What !' said Miss Jane. Arthur's wife?' said Miss Catherine. ' Certainly. I've always believed he told the truth. I believe lie married her,' Never !' cried Miss Catherine. ' Arthur was a disgrace to the whole family always. He v/aa a breaker of ail laws. What do you— what do we know of that creature — he met, abroad— a half — gipsy, from all accounts— a circus rider — a Heaven can say what ?' ' I only know what Arthur told me, 1 rejoined Lewis quietly. Hitherto Miss Hannah had ::ot once speken. Now she opened her mouth. , 1 Lewis, are you in love with that girl ?' Lewis Northrop Hushed hotly. 'With Lisetta? No,' he said more quietly. ' I think I can say truthfully that 1 am not. ' It's well,' said Miss Hannah. 'I am glad to hear it. You know how it stands with her. No use to struggle with the truth. The stigma upon her birth, or call it the mystery if you^hke, surrounding it will never be removed. Lisette can never be the wife of any man who respects himself, his family, his name. Lewis was about to protest that he ciid not agree with any of her premises, when isliss Catherine, who* had an abiding terror of burglars, started nervously. ' What's that ? I thought I saw a shadow pass the window, and I'm sure I heard a sound. of some kind. 1 ' Nonsense. Lisette has been in bed this long time.' In the growing dawn of the next- morning

they waked him. Miss Hanpah, shivering in her night clothes and a shawl, and with blanched iace, stood by his bedside. ' Lisette is missing. We have have looked all through the house. We have just discovered it. She has not slept in her bed.' ft A dread intuition had came to Lewis. He would not give it lodgment till all else had been tried. Then he sought, with the other three men, the way to the deep pool in the bend 01 the river Lisette had described. And there they found her. Lewis took the lifeless form in his arms, and they carried her back to uhe three consciencestricken, horrified women. ' But why— how— should she have made away with herself ?' sobbed Miss Catherine. Lewis still said nothing. Miss Hannah solved the mystery for them all. ' Had she heard us last night '?' But Lewis held his peace. They buried the little outcast under the evergreens in the grounds and the cross that marks the place is Lewis Northi-op"s tribute to her memory. And the man who, of all her kin alone, understood the passionate heart of this little alien, knows, with unavailing remorse and regret, which time cannot wholly soften that his last words, as much as the cruel slurs and disclosures o'i these old women, drove Lisotte to her end.