Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor
Gwenny's nose was touched with frost, before we had gone much farther,
because she would not keep it quiet and snug beneath the sealskin. And
here I had to stop in the moonlight (which was very dangerous) and rub
it with a clove of snow, as Eliza had taught me; and Gwenny scolding
all the time, as if myself had frozen it. Lorna was now so far oppressed
with all the troubles of the evening, and the joy that followed them, as
well as by the piercing cold and difficulty of breathing, that she lay
quite motionless, like fairest wax in the moonlight--when we stole a
glance at her, beneath the dark folds of the cloak; and I thought that
she was falling into the heavy snow-sleep, whence there is no awaking.
Therefore, I drew my traces tight, and set my whole strength to the
business; and we slipped along at a merry pace, although with many
joltings, which must have sent my darling out into the cold snowdrifts
but for the short strong arm of Gwenny. And so in about an hour's time,
in spite of many hindrances, we came home to the old courtyard, and all
the dogs saluted us. My heart was quivering, and my cheeks as hot as
the Doones' bonfire, with wondering both what Lorna would think of
our farm-yard, and what my mother would think of her. Upon the former
subject my anxiety was wasted, for Lorna neither saw a thing, nor even
opened her heavy eyes. And as to what mother would think of her, she was
certain not to think at all, until she had cried over her.
And so indeed it came to pass. Even at this length of time, I can hardly
tell it, although so bright before my mind, because it moves my heart
so. The sledd was at the open door, with only Lorna in it; for Gwenny
Carfax had jumped out, and hung back in the clearing, giving any reason
rather than the only true one--that she would not be intruding. At the
door were all our people; first, of course, Betty Muxworthy, teaching
me how to draw the sledd, as if she had been born in it, and flourishing
with a great broom, wherever a speck of snow lay. Then dear Annie,
and old Molly (who was very quiet, and counted almost for nobody), and
behind them, mother, looking as if she wanted to come first, but
doubted how the manners lay. In the distance Lizzie stood, fearful of
encouraging, but unable to keep out of it.
Betty was going to poke her broom right in under the sealskin cloak,
where Lorna lay unconscious, and where her precious breath hung frozen,
like a silver cobweb; but I caught up Betty's broom, and flung it clean
away over the corn chamber; and then I put the others by, and fetched my
mother forward.
“You shall see her first,” I said: “is she not your daughter? Hold the
light there, Annie.”
Dear mother's hands were quick and trembling, as she opened the shining
folds; and there she saw my Lorna sleeping, with her black hair all
dishevelled, and she bent and kissed her forehead, and only said, “God
bless her, John!” And then she was taken with violent weeping, and I was
forced to hold her.
“Us may tich of her now, I rackon,” said Betty in her most jealous way;
“Annie, tak her by the head, and I'll tak her by the toesen. No taime
to stand here like girt gawks. Don'ee tak on zo, missus. Ther be vainer
vish in the zea--Lor, but, her be a booty!”
With this, they carried her into the house, Betty chattering all the
while, and going on now about Lorna's hands, and the others crowding
round her, so that I thought I was not wanted among so many women, and
should only get the worst of it, and perhaps do harm to my darling.
Therefore I went and brought Gwenny in, and gave her a potful of
bacon and peas, and an iron spoon to eat it with, which she did right
heartily.
Then I asked her how she could have been such a fool as to let those two
vile fellows enter the house where Lorna was; and she accounted for it
so naturally, that I could only blame myself. For my agreement had been
to give one loud knock (if you happen to remember) and after that two
little knocks. Well these two drunken rogues had come; and one, being
very drunk indeed, had given a great thump; and then nothing more to
do with it; and the other, being three-quarters drunk, had followed his
leader (as one might say) but feebly, and making two of it. Whereupon up
jumped Lorna, and declared that her John was there.
All this Gwenny told me shortly, between the whiles of eating, and even
while she licked the spoon; and then there came a message for me that my
love was sensible, and was seeking all around for me. Then I told Gwenny
to hold her tongue (whatever she did among us), and not to trust to
women's words; and she told me they all were liars, as she had found
out long ago; and the only thing to believe in was an honest man, when
found. Thereupon I could have kissed her as a sort of tribute, liking to
be appreciated; yet the peas upon her lips made me think about it; and
thought is fatal to action. So I went to see my dear.
That sight I shall not forget; till my dying head falls back, and my
breast can lift no more. I know not whether I were then more blessed,
or harrowed by it. For in the settle was my Lorna, propped with
pillows round her, and her clear hands spread sometimes to the blazing
fireplace. In her eyes no knowledge was of anything around her, neither
in her neck the sense of leaning towards anything. Only both her lovely
hands were entreating something, to spare her, or to love her; and the
lines of supplication quivered in her sad white face.
“All go away, except my mother,” I said very quietly, but so that I
would be obeyed; and everybody knew it. Then mother came to me alone;
and she said, “The frost is in her brain; I have heard of this before,
John.” “Mother, I will have it out,” was all that I could answer her;
“leave her to me altogether; only you sit there and watch.” For I felt
that Lorna knew me, and no other soul but me; and that if not interfered
with, she would soon come home to me. Therefore I sat gently by her,
leaving nature, as it were, to her own good time and will. And presently
the glance that watched me, as at distance and in doubt, began to
flutter and to brighten, and to deepen into kindness, then to beam with
trust and love, and then with gathering tears to falter, and in shame
to turn away. But the small entreating hands found their way, as if by
instinct, to my great projecting palms; and trembled there, and rested
there.
For a little while we lingered thus, neither wishing to move away,
neither caring to look beyond the presence of the other; both alike so
full of hope, and comfort, and true happiness; if only the world would
let us be. And then a little sob disturbed us, and mother tried to make
believe that she was only coughing. But Lorna, guessing who she was,
jumped up so very rashly that she almost set her frock on fire from the
great ash log; and away she ran to the old oak chair, where mother was
by the clock-case pretending to be knitting, and she took the work from
mother's hands, and laid them both upon her head, kneeling humbly, and
looking up.
“God bless you, my fair mistress!” said mother, bending nearer, and then
as Lorna's gaze prevailed, “God bless you, my sweet child!”
And so she went to mother's heart by the very nearest road, even as she
had come to mine; I mean the road of pity, smoothed by grace, and youth,
and gentleness.
CHAPTER XLV
A CHANGE LONG NEEDED
Jeremy Stickles was gone south, ere ever the frost set in, for the
purpose of mustering forces to attack the Doone Glen. But, of course,
this weather had put a stop to every kind of movement; for even if men
could have borne the cold, they could scarcely be brought to face the
perils of the snow-drifts. And to tell the truth I cared not how long
this weather lasted, so long as we had enough to eat, and could keep
ourselves from freezing. Not only that I did not want Master Stickles
back again, to make more disturbances; but also that the Doones could
not come prowling after Lorna while the snow lay piled between us, with
the surface soft and dry. Of course they would very soon discover where
their lawful queen was, although the track of sledd and snow-shoes had
been quite obliterated by another shower, before the revellers could
have grown half as drunk as they intended. But Marwood de Whichehalse,
who had been snowed up among them (as Gwenny said), after helping
to strip the beacon, that young Squire was almost certain to have
recognised me, and to have told the vile Carver. And it gave me no
little pleasure to think how mad that Carver must be with me, for
robbing him of the lovely bride whom he was starving into matrimony.
However, I was not pleased at all with the prospect of the consequences;
but set all hands on to thresh the corn, ere the Doones could come and
burn the ricks. For I knew that they could not come yet, inasmuch as
even a forest pony could not traverse the country, much less the heavy
horses needed to carry such men as they were. And hundreds of the forest
ponies died in this hard weather, some being buried in the snow, and
more of them starved for want of grass.
Going through this state of things, and laying down the law about
it (subject to correction), I very soon persuaded Lorna that for the
present she was safe, and (which made her still more happy) that she was
not only welcome, but as gladdening to our eyes as the flowers of May.
Of course, so far as regarded myself, this was not a hundredth part of
the real truth; and even as regarded others, I might have said it ten
times over. For Lorna had so won them all, by her kind and gentle ways,
and her mode of hearkening to everybody's trouble, and replying without
words, as well as by her beauty, and simple grace of all things, that
I could almost wish sometimes the rest would leave her more to me. But
mother could not do enough; and Annie almost worshipped her; and even
Lizzie could not keep her bitterness towards her; especially when she
found that Lorna knew as much of books as need be.
As for John Fry, and Betty, and Molly, they were a perfect plague when
Lorna came into the kitchen. For betwixt their curiosity to see a
live Doone in the flesh (when certain not to eat them), and their high
respect for birth (with or without honesty), and their intense desire to
know all about Master John's sweetheart (dropped, as they said, from the
snow-clouds), and most of all their admiration of a beauty such as never
even their angels could have seen--betwixt and between all this, I say,
there was no getting the dinner cooked, with Lorna in the kitchen.
And the worst of it was that Lorna took the strangest of all strange
fancies for this very kitchen; and it was hard to keep her out of it.
Not that she had any special bent for cooking, as our Annie had; rather
indeed the contrary, for she liked to have her food ready cooked; but
that she loved the look of the place, and the cheerful fire burning, and
the racks of bacon to be seen, and the richness, and the homeliness, and
the pleasant smell of everything. And who knows but what she may have
liked (as the very best of maidens do) to be admired, now and then,
between the times of business?
Therefore if you wanted Lorna (as I was always sure to do, God knows
how many times a day), the very surest place to find her was our own
old kitchen. Not gossiping, I mean, nor loitering, neither seeking into
things, but seeming to be quite at home, as if she had known it from a
child, and seeming (to my eyes at least) to light it up, and make life
and colour out of all the dullness; as I have seen the breaking sun do
among brown shocks of wheat.
But any one who wished to learn whether girls can change or not, as the