THE WATCHER AND THE WARDENThere was a custom of Canaan, time-worn and seldom honored in the breach, which put Ariel, that afternoon, in easy possession of a coign of vantage commanding the front gate.The heavy Sunday dinner was finished in silence (on the part of Judge Pike, deafening)about three o'clock, and, soon after, Mamie tossed a number of cushions out upon the stoop between the cast-iron dogs,--Sam Warden having previously covered the steps with a rug and placed several garden chairs near by on the grass.These simple preparations concluded, Eugene sprawled comfortably upon the rug, and Mamie seated herself near him, while Ariel wandered with apparent aimlessness about the lawn, followed by the gaze of Mr.Bantry, until Miss Pike begged her, a little petulantly, to join them.
She came, looking about her dreamily, and touching to her lips, now and then, with an absent air, a clover blossom she had found in the longer grass against the fence.She stopped to pat the neck of one of the cast-iron deer, and with grave eyes proffered the clover-top first for inspection, then as food.There were those in the world who, seeing her, might have wondered that the deer did not play Galatea and come to life.
"No?" she said, aloud, to the steadfast head.
"You won't? What a mistake to be made of cast-iron!" She smiled and nodded to a clump of lilac-bushes near a cedar-tree, and to nothing else--so far as Eugene and Mamie could see,--then walked thoughtfully to the steps.
"Who in the world were you speaking to?" asked Mamie, curiously.
"That deer."
"But you bowed to some one."
"Oh, that," Ariel lifted her eyebrows,--"that was your father.Didn't you see him?""No.""I believe you can't from here, after all," said Ariel, slowly."He is sitting upon a rustic bench between the bushes and the cedar-tree, quite near the gate.No, you couldn't see him from here;you'd have to go as far as the deer, at least, and even then you might not notice him, unless you looked for him.He has a book--a Bible, I think--but I don't think he is reading.""He usually takes a nap on Sunday afternoons,"said Mamie.