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His servant placed before him a small mess of vegetables, that very dish, the cooking of which had alarmed Miss Griselda, arranged with the most minute and scrupulous neatness. He ate sparingly of these provisions; and a glass of pure water, sparkling from the fountain-head, completed his repast.
"Am I to walk along there?" she said softly to the cuckoo. "No," he replied; "wait." Griselda waited, looking still, and presently in the middle of the shining streak she saw something slowly moving something from which the light came, for the nearer it got to her the shorter grew the glowing path, and behind the moving object the sea looked no brighter than before it had appeared.
"Can it be a trick of the cuckoo's to get me out into the garden?" thought Griselda; and for the first time since she had run out of her room a shiver of cold made her teeth chatter and her skin feel creepy. "Cuckoo, cuckoo," sounded again, nearer this time, it seemed to Griselda. "He's waiting for me. I will trust him," she said resolutely.
It concerns us now chiefly to know that our Griselda held up her head well throughout that evening, and made herself comfortable and at her ease among her cousins, although it was already known to her that the legal decision had gone against her in the great case of Ball v. Mackenzie.
I don't even care if they scold me for being late." But, after all, it was not so much later than usual; it was only a much brighter morning than they had had for some time. Griselda did dress herself very quickly, however. As she went downstairs two or three of the clocks in the house, for there were several, were striking eight.
It fluttered quietly up on to her shoulder, and sang out in a soft but cheery tone, "Cuckoo, cuckoo cold, did you say, Griselda? Not so very, thank you." Griselda stept back from the window. "It's you, is it?" she said rather surlily, her tone seeming to infer that she had taken a great deal of trouble for nothing. "Of course it is, and why shouldn't it be? You're not generally so sorry to see me.
The rooks seemed to know that something was the matter; they set to work making such a chatter immediately Griselda appeared that she felt inclined to run back into the house again. "I am sure they are talking about me," she said to herself. "Perhaps they are fairies too. I am beginning to think I don't like fairies." She was glad when bed-time came.
"Now," said the cuckoo, when at last all was quiet again, and every blue and every yellow butterfly seemed settled in his place, "now, Griselda, come and look at yourself." He led the way to a marble basin, into which fell the waters of one of the tinkling brooks that were to be found everywhere about the garden, and bade Griselda look into the water mirror.
He was too old and weak to work for her, or even for himself. All round the village lay the fruitful fields and vineyards of the plain, and on the slopes near grew olive-trees laden with fruit. Far in the distance rose the snow-capped mountains of the North. Even in so rich a land it was not easy for this young Griselda to make her father's life as pleasant as she would have wished it to be.
When she woke it was bright morning, really bright morning, for the wintry sun was already sending some clear yellow rays out into the pale grey-blue sky. "It must be late," thought Griselda, when she had opened the shutters and seen how light it was. "I must have slept a long time. I feel so beautifully unsleepy now. I must dress quickly how nice it will be to see my aunts look happy again!
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