A Bloodsmoor Romance by Joyce Carol Oates

Author:Joyce Carol Oates
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Historical
ISBN: 9780062269195
Publisher: Ecco
Published: 1982-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

A HAPPY CONCLUSION, then, to an episode fraught with more than a little alarm: one’s heart swells with joy, to see again Mr. and Mrs. Bonner hurrying to their naughty child’s side, and sweeping her up in an embrace, all the while exclaiming, and admonishing, and fairly gasping with relief, and simple gratitude, and protestations of apology uttered to Mr. Zinn!—for the moment was an emotional one, verging upon the inchoate, and the Bonners are to be forgiven if their hearts pounded most wildly, and tears sprang into their eyes, with an admixture of joy, relief, and parental reprehension.

In an instant, however, all was clear. All was explained, and quite straightforward. Deirdre had wandered onto the plateau of flat rocks, and Mr. Zinn, enraptured by the silence, and completely caught up, as he phrased it, in the “solitude of the Divine Eye,” turned to see her—with some surprise at first (for naturally he did not expect to see a child in that wild place, or any human figure at all), and then with delight, and amusement. For what a charming little miss Deirdre was, in her lambswool bonnet, and her smart calfskin boots, new that past Christmas!

The Bonners, conscious of their intrusion into Mr. Zinn’s reverie (it being obvious to them that the renowned inventor had been startl’d out of a deep meditation, and no mere idle daydream), and conscious even more painfully of their gravely disparate social status, would have hastened back home immediately, their little girl firmly in tow, had not the handsome Mr. Zinn, with the aristocratic charity of his in-law Kiddemasters, and the yet more impressive spontaneity of friendliness, of his own sunny nature, invited them all to his workshop: there to partake of tea and a light repast, and a few minutes’ much-needed rest, before they began their hike home.

The Bonners declined this gracious invitation, with many a blush and genteel protestation; but Mr. Zinn so insisted, and Deirdre grew so lively in her insistence, that, after some minutes, the Bonners acquiesced, and, Mr. Bonner carrying the somwhat o’erwrought child in his arms, they repaired to the cabin, not one hundred yards distant, on a sturdy granite promontory overlooking the gorge’s deepest chasm.

The cabin was trim and foursquare, made of plain, stolid, ordinary birch logs, in the weathertight fashion first demonstrated, in the New World of the mid-1600’s, by the Swedish and Finnish pioneers, and quite unknown—if legendary history tells truth—to both English and German, and even Dutch, settlers. Mr. and Mrs. Bonner, greatly pleased with Mr. Zinn’s hospitality, enjoyed the visit less demonstrably than did little Deirdre: but were pleased nonetheless, to be offered fresh Ceylon tea, and delicious date-nut squares baked (as Mr. Zinn but casually mentioned) by Mrs. Zinn herself—Mrs. Zinn being of course Miss Prudence Kiddemaster, the daughter of the famous Judge, and Mrs. Sarah Whitton Kiddemaster, the wealthy Wilmington heiress.

The Bonners were given chairs by the small but cozy fire, and introduced to Mr. Zinn’s pet monkey, Pip, that “naughty little furry-souled devil,” as Mr.

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