CHAPTER 33.
THE next day’s ride was inexpressibly oppressive to all but Maynard, whose demeanour troubled Margaret and afforded a subject for much reflection to Noel. At times he seemed to be elate as a hero who has just achieved a great triumph; at others, he was moody and depressed. When camped for the night, Margaret retired as soon as possible after the evening meal. Noel, after a little conversation, said be should try to get some sleep early; whereupon James said that he would walk on to the condúcta, and ascertain if it was possible to reach the port by the next evening, his anxiety to do so being prompted by his wish to get them all on board ship out of that unhealthy region.
It was after some hours of uneasy sleep that Noel, catching sight of the stars shining through his tent’s thin woof, and hearing the sighing of the refreshing breeze among the tree-tops, determined to turn out and enjoy the night-scene and air. He had lain down half dressed, and had only to throw his serápe over him to be ready. To his surprise, he found Margaret pacing uneasily up and down near the tents.
‘I was wanting you,’ she said. ‘Tell me where James is. Has he not returned yet?’
‘No. And he has been so strange all day, that I am anxious.’
‘He went forward, to speak with the officers of the condúcta. Depend upon it, he found the road so difficult that he has thought it better to stay and sleep there, than to return in the dark.’
As he spoke, he stumbled, but recovered himself without falling.
‘You perceive how impossible it is to see the roots that
(p. 360)
spread over the surface. I assure you that he is wise to wait for daylight. Have you had any sleep?’
‘No. I have been too ill at ease in my mind to sleep. Finding he did not return, I thought I would ask you if there is any cause for alarm. But when I had come out, I could not bring myself to disturb you.’
‘You see you have disturbed me, nevertheless. Surely, you do not suppose you could be lying there, or wandering here, restless and anxious, without my feeling it. I have had but broken snatches of sleep all the night, and only came out on feeling the irresistible magnetism of your wish. You must think of us not as two, but as one person.’
‘Oh, how I wish we were!’ she exclaimed, fervently.
‘Thanks, darling, and forgive my selfishness in being made inexpressibly happy by knowing that you wish it.’
‘No, no, I did not mean that. I was wrong – mad, to say so. I know not what I meant.’
‘There is no room for self-reproach, I can assure you. That our sympathy is so perfect, is none of our doing. We but obey our true nature in following it. Come! you shiver in this night air, deliciously cool as it is after the day’s seething. Let us sit here awhile, with this arching root for back, and I will throw my serápe round you, while we inhale a little more of the sea-breeze. Another ten leagues, to-morrow, will bring us to the coast. This sort of experience makes one think what an unbearable world it would be, were there no more sea.’
‘A world with no more sea of troubles?’ said Margaret. ‘I often think that, somehow, I must have lost my way, and come into this one by mistake. At least, I did think so until I found one whom I recognised, and who seemed to recognise me.’
They were reclining side by side on the turf, beneath a noble mahogany tree, leaning against a root that arched far over their heads, and turned and twisted along the ground to a distance beyond their feet, like a huge serpent too drowsy or secure to care for mischief or evasion. It was just discernible in the star-light, and suggested to Noel thoughts which he kept to himself. So far from proving a tempter, like its predecessor of conflicting memories, it only served to stimulate and fortify his moral sense.
‘No, no,’ he murmured to himself; ‘we are no children to be deluded by
subtleties, though we be sojourners in
(p. 361)
and one, at least, of us be innocent as Eve herself. Surely man learns something in so many thousand years; or what is the meaning of humanity? Oh, my Margaret, the long results of time are not worthless if they have developed woman’s heart and man’s intellect beyond the world of mere self.’
She made no response, but seemed to lean somewhat more closely to him. Bending down over her, he found that she was fast asleep. The discovery made him intensely happy. He felt, in that supreme moment, that it was the highest compliment that had ever been paid to him. After years of troubled dreamings and wakings, she had at length found that for which her soul longed, and nestling to him had at once sunk into a deep, happy, peaceful slumber; best of all possible proofs of the genuineness of her waking feelings, and of the reality and depth of their mutual sympathy.
‘For this to be,’ he thought to himself, ‘my nature must partake of the innocence of yours. Far from me, then, be any thought that can disturb your repose. For you would read it, and be agitated thereby. This is indeed the confidence of the perfect love where no fear is.’
And he pressed his arm round her the better to protect her with his serápe against the night airs, which were not without a degree of moisture; and set himself to think all pure and lovely thoughts which might flit as guardian angels around her and fill her with happy dreams; and ever and anon he would seek to deepen her slumber by the resolute exercise of his will, believing that in the rapport of their sympathies he had such power to influence her.
Hour after hour passed, and still the spell worked. Now and then a murmur escaped her lips, indicating that she dreamt; and whenever Noel heard it, he renewed the effort of his will, and presently the slumber grew deeper. It was only by marking through the tree-tops the rapid shifting of the places of the glistening orbs that he judged the progress of the night. For in his state of ecstatic tranquillity all sense of time had vanished; and the current of his thoughts had settled down into an even rhythm, whereof the burden seemed to him to come in spontaneous flow, ‘And so he giveth his beloved sleep.’
The mechanical regularity with which the sentence at length recurred, showed him that he, too, was on the point of falling asleep. This he had resolved not to do. He felt certain that Maynard would return with the earliest light, and he had
(p. 362)
chosen his position so as to be able to watch for his approach along the vista that opened through the forest in the direction he had taken. Not that he intended to remain so long in that position. Dawn in those latitudes is rapidly followed by day; and he set himself to watch for other indications of its approach than those of light. The forest, as he had before learnt, always woke before the dawn. And now he could catch the sound as of birds turning in their feathery beds on the branches above him, and of unseen insects that began to tune betimes their shrill little whistles: even the leaves stirred as they had not stirred all the night; and soon a sound as of a general, but subdued, rustle pervaded the air, showing that creation felt the coming of its lord, the sun, and was stirred in its sleep even before his approach revealed itself to the senses of the watcher.
Gently withdrawing the arm which had been so long and so tenderly engaged, and detaching himself from his serápe which he left carefully wrapped around the still slumbering Margaret, Noel withdrew to his tent; and throwing himself down was presently wrapt in unconsciousness. And heedless of the rapid dawn, and the loud discordant cries from the innumerable birds of brilliant plumage with which the woods were now alive; heedless of the notes of preparation around him for the day’s march, he slept soundly until roused by the voice of Maynard telling him that if he wanted any breakfast before starting, he had better lose no time in coming to it.
The mules were already in waiting; the other tents had been struck and packed; Margaret had had her scolding for falling asleep under the tree, and nothing remained for Noel but to vacate his tent, make a hasty meal, and mount.
‘Only fancy,’ said James to him. ‘This foolish child has passed the whole night in the, open air, and only woke when she heard my step. Luckily she had borrowed your serápe, or she would have had a chill and fever to a certainty.’
As Noel listened, Margaret cast a glance of grateful affection towards him, and then suddenly withdrew her eyes and broke into a suffusion of blushes, a complexion with which Noel had never seen her before. A ‘rare pale Margaret’ as she was by constitution alike of mind and body, the red current of her life lay far beneath the surface. And now for the first time it was forced sufficiently near to the crust to penetrate with burning heat the outer layer of snow. Even James was struck by the novelty of the apparition, for he exclaimed, –
(p. 363)
‘Margaret! how red you are! I shall not be astonished to find you have the fever already.’
‘Oh, I think not,’ she replied, in a tone of gentle gaiety. ‘But come, let us get on our way without talking about me.’
Noel longed to hold some conversation with her, but during the whole day Maynard scarcely left her side. It was clear that her demeanour perplexed him as much as his troubled her. Indeed, she seemed to be conscious of a change in her own manner and aspect, for she said once that she had slept so soundly all night that she was scarcely awake yet. So Noel rode by the children, and pointed out to them the great birdlike butterflies, and the alligators basking on the edges of the lagoons, and helped them to look for monkeys up in the palm trees; and so beguiled the way until they reached the pleasant little town which, standing on an acclivity opposite to Tampico, overlooked the harbour of their destination.
The steamer was expected to arrive in two or three days; so the next day was
spent in resting in what, owing to its altitude, is certainly the healthiest
spot in that region, while the treasure brought by the convoy was taken across
the lagoon. Maynard was, as usual, always on the alert, taking part in every
operation, and Noel, seeing that Margaret, through fatigue, or some other cause,
was disinclined for conversation, kept near him, and watched with interest the
details of his admirable organisation. That evening saw the whole of the
treasure safely deposited in the custom-house at
Sections: General Index Present Section: Index Present Work: Index Previous: Chapter 32 Next: Chapter 34
 |