CHAPTER VII.
"THE TRAIL OF THE SERPENT."
"Your roses are fading in the hot sunshine, dear. Let us get some fresh
ones," said Love to Dainty, anxious to draw her out of sight of the
others, that he might seal their betrothal with a lover's kiss.
They moved away toward the rose-garden, followed by the angry, envious
glances of Olive and Ela, who hated Dainty with jealous hate, now that
they saw how little all their arts had availed to change her lover.
But Love and Dainty had forgotten their existence. They were in Arcady.
--"Love must kiss that mortal's eyes
Who hopes to see fair Arcady,
No gold can buy your entrance there,
But beggared Love may go all bare--
No wisdom won with weariness;
But Love goes in with Folly's dress--
No fame that wit could ever win,
But only Love may lead Love in;
To Arcady, to Arcady."
All around them the flowers bloomed in lavish profusion; the tender-eyed
pansies, the golden-hearted lilies, the fragrant roses, shaking out
perfume on the warm summer air, while the bees and the butterflies
hurried from flower to flower, and overhead the blue sky of June smiled
on the happy lovers--so happy, dreaming not of the darkened future.
Where some luxuriant shrubbery formed a convenient screen, Love drew
Dainty aside, crying, ardently:
"I am dying to kiss you, my own little darling! May I?"
Without waiting for consent, he clasped her in his arms, and kissed her
lips again and again, with the ardor of the honey-bee rifling the
flowers of their sweets, till she struggled bashfully from him, crying:
"But the roses!"
"Come, then, we will get them;" and they sauntered on along the graveled
path in a sort of silent ecstacy, until suddenly Dainty recoiled with a
horrified cry:
"Oh, see that hideous viper!"
Love looked down and saw a large viper crawling across their path, its
hideous head upraised in defiance, hissing venomously at their advance.
"See how angry it is! What a wicked glare in its eyes! See how its red
forked tongue darts at us in rage! Oh, is it not an evil omen to our
love?" half sobbed Dainty, drawing back and regarding the serpent with
fearful interest mixed with unwilling fascination.
"Stand aside, darling, and I will make short work of the evil omen!"
Love answered, gayly, as with two sharp blows of the racquet he carried
in his hand he destroyed the ominous intruder on their peace, and kicked
it aside, saying, soothingly: "Take that as an omen, darling, that I
will always thrust aside whatever interferes between us and happiness."
"Oh, you are so strong, so brave! I am not afraid of anything while you
are with me!" Dainty cried, clinging to the arm of her bold, handsome
lover, who smiled on her so lovingly as he gathered the beautiful roses
to replace those he had sent her that morning, and that were now
withering at her waist.
He took some of the fading flowers, kissed them, and placed them very
carefully in his pocket-book, saying:
"I will always keep them in memory of the happiest day of my life!"
Dainty's heart thrilled with joy at the words; then she shuddered at the
thought of how angry Olive and Ela would be because he loved her so
well.
"Perhaps they will hate me, although I have not done them any wrong. I
did not make him love me. It was God put it into his heart. But I can
guess how they will sneer and say I was bold and forward, trying to get
a rich husband. I wish he were poor--almost as poor as I am--so that I
could tell them I love him for himself alone, which is true, though they
will pretend never to believe it, in their jealous spite," ran her
perturbed thoughts; for she could not get Olive and Ela quite out of her
mind.
The dread of their spite and anger trailed its venom through her
happiness as the hideous viper had trailed across the sunny path, making
her cry out that it was evil-omened. Alas! that spite and jealousy were
destined to work her as deadly ill as the serpent's fangs.
It was this subtle dread tugging at Dainty's heart-strings that made her
murmur wistfully, as they retraced their steps:
"Let us keep our secret awhile yet, lest Olive and Ela should say I was
too easily won."
"What do you care for their opinion!" cried her lover, disdainfully.
"Oh, but you do not know how cruel they would be, what cutting things
they would say to me!" she cried.
And he laughed.
"Dainty, I believe you are an arrant coward, after all, as your cousin
Olive told me this morning."
"Did she say so?"--angrily, the blue eyes flashing.
"Yes; she said you were the most cowardly girl on earth--afraid of your
own shadow--and always in hysterics over something, so that she and Ela
were sorry you came, dreading that you would annoy your aunt."
"Oh, it is false!" she cried, indignantly. "She only said it to turn
your heart against me. And I--I will show her after this whether I am a
coward or not!"
"That is right, my little sweetheart. I adore bravery in women, and I
want you to prove Olive's story false," he cried, encouragingly; adding:
"Of course, if you wish to keep our engagement secret awhile, I will
consent to it; but it seems rather cruel to two of our visitors, who are
already palpably jealous of me. But I warn you, Dainty, not to flirt
with them, for I am the most jealous of men."
"You need not be afraid of me. I can think of no one but you, dear
Love!" she whispered, with the loveliest blush in the world.
They rejoined their companions, and Love forced himself to obey the
demands of conventionality by showing some attention to the other
guests; but his heart was not in his courtesies. He could think only of
the bonny sweetheart he had won by such headlong wooing.
"And it is only yesterday that I saw her first, my darling!" he mused,
tenderly. "It was love at first sight with us both, it seems, and I take
that for a sure sign that Heaven intended us for each other."