"I do admire Miss Warren very much--now as much as ever. I admire a great many ladies, especially your mother. I never knew a truer, kinder lady."
"And if it had not been for thee, Richard, she might have been burned up," and tears came into his eyes.
"Oh, no, Reuben. You could have got them all out easily enough."
"I fear I would have lost my head."
"No, you wouldn"t; you are not of that kind. Please say no more about that affair. I"ve heard too much of it."
"Does thee think thee"ll be able to come down to dinner? Mother and father and all of us will be awfully disappointed if thee isn"t."
"Yes, I"ll come down if you"ll stand by me, and help me back when I give you the wink. I won"t go down till dinner"s ready; after it"s over you can help me out under some tree. I"m just wild to get out of doors."
I had a consuming desire to retrieve myself, and prove that I was not weakness personified, and I pa.s.sed through the ordeal of dinner much better than I expected. Mr. Hearn was benignness itself, but I saw that he was very observant. The shrewd Wall Street man had the eye of an eagle when his interests were concerned, and he very naturally surmised that no one could have seen so much of Miss Warren as I had, and still remain entirely indifferent; besides, he may have detected something in my manner or imagined that the peculiar events of the past few weeks had made us better acquainted than he cared to have us.
Miss Warren"s greeting was cordial, but her manner toward me was so quiet and natural that he had no cause for complaint, and I felt that I had rather be drawn asunder by wild horses than give him a clew to my feelings. I took a seat next to Mr. Yocomb, and we chatted quietly most of the time. The old gentleman was greatly pleased about something, and it soon came out that Mr. Hearn had promised him five hundred dollars to put a new roof on the meeting-house and make other improvements. I drew all the facts readily from the zealous Friend, together with quite a history of the old meeting-house, for I proposed to make a complimentary item of the matter in my paper, well knowing how grateful such incense was to the banker"s soul. Mr. Hearn, who sat nearest to us, may have heard my questions and divined my purpose, for he was peculiarly gracious.
I was not able to do very much justice to Mrs. Yocomb"s grand dinner, but was unstinted in my praise. The banker made amends for my inability, and declared he had never enjoyed such a repast, even at Delmonico"s. I though Miss Warren"s appet.i.te flagged a little, but to the utmost extent of my power I kept my eyes and thoughts from her.
After dinner Reuben helped me to a breezy knoll behind the dwelling, and spreading some robes from the carriage-house under a wide-branching tree, left me, at my request, to myself. The banker now had his way, and carried Miss Warren off to a distant grove. I would not look at them as they went down the lane together, but shut my eyes and tried to breathe in life and health.
Adah read to the two little girls for some time, and then came hesitatingly toward me. I feigned sleep, for I was too weak and miserable to treat the girl as she deserved. She stood irresolutely a moment or two, and then slowly and lingeringly returned to the house.
My feigning soon became reality, and when I awoke Reuben was sitting beside me, and I found had covered me well to guard against the dampness of the declining day.
"You are always on hand when I need you most," I said smilingly. "I think I will go back to my room now, while able to make a respectable retreat."
I saw Mr. Hearn and Miss Warren entering the house, and thought that they had had a long afternoon together, but that time no doubt had pa.s.sed more quickly with them than with me, even though I had slept for hours. When reaching the parlor door I saw Miss Warren at the piano; she turned so quickly as almost to give me the impression that she was waiting to intercept me.
"Would you not like to hear your favorite nocturne again?" she asked, with a friendly smile.
I hesitated, and half entered the parlor. Her face seemed to light up with pleasure at my compliance. How divine she appeared in the quaint, simple room! I felt that I would gladly give the best years of my life for the right to sit there and feast my eyes on a grace and beauty that to me were indescribable and irresistible; but the heavy tread of the banker in the adjoining room reminded me that I had no right--that to see her and to listen would soon become unendurable pain. I had twice been taught my weakness.
"Thank you," I said, with a short, dry laugh; "I"m sorely tempted, but it"s time I learned that for me discretion is certainly the better part of valor," and I turned away, but not too soon to see that her face grew sad and wistful.
"Heaven bless her kind heart!" I murmured as I wearily climbed the stairs.
Adah brought me up my supper long before the others were through, and I felt a faint remorse that I had feigned sleep in the afternoon, even though my motive had been consideration for her as truly as for myself.
"Miss Adah!" I exclaimed, "you are growing much too unselfish. Why didn"t you get your supper first?"
"I"ve had all I wish. I"m not hungry to-night."
"Truly, you look as if you lived on roses; but you can"t thrive long on such unsubstantial diet. It was real good of you to read to those children so long. If I had been an artist, I would have made a sketch of you three. You and that little dark-eyed girl make a lovely contrast."
"I like her," she said simply; "I feel as if I wanted some one to pet.
Can"t I read to you while you eat your supper?"
"I"d rather have you talk to me: what do you think of the little girl"s father?"
"I haven"t thought much about him."
"I wish you could see his house in New York; it"s a superb one, and on your favorite Fifth Avenue."
"Yes, I know," she replied absently.
"I should think you would envy Miss Warren."
"I don"t," she said emphatically; "the man is more than the house."
"I don"t think you would have said that a month ago."
"I fear not. I fear thee didn"t like me that Sunday afternoon when I was so self-satisfied. I"ve thought it over."
"Indeed, Miss Adah, I would gladly be struck by lightning myself if it would change me for the better as greatly as you are changed."
"It wasn"t the lightning," she said, blushing and slowly shaking her head. "I"ve been thinking."
"Ah," I laughed, "you are shrewd. If women only knew it, there"s nothing that gives beauty like thought, and it"s a charm that increases every year. Well," I continued, with the utmost frankness, "I do like you now, and what is more, I honestly respect you. When you come to New York again, I am going to ask your mother to trust me as if I were your older brother, and I"ll take you to see and hear much that I"m sure you"ll enjoy."
"Oh, that will be splendid!" she cried gladly. "I know mother will let me go with thee, because--because--well, she says thee is a gentleman."
"Do you know, Miss Adah, I"d rather have your mother say that than have all Mr. Hearn"s thousands. But your mother judges me leniently. To tell you the honest truth, I"ve come lately to have a very poor opinion of myself. I feel that I would have been a much better man if, in past years, I had seen more of such people as dwell in this house."
"Thee remembers what father said to thee," she replied, shyly, with downcast eyes; "this is thy home hereafter."
"She looks now," I thought, "as if she might fulfil the dream I wove about her on that memorable day when I first saw her in the meeting-house. How perverse my fate has been, giving me that for which I might well thank G.o.d on my knees, and yet which my heart refuses, and withholding that which will impoverish my whole life. Why must the heart be so imperious and self-willed in these matters? An elderly gentleman would say, Everything is just right as it is. It would be the absurdity of folly for Miss Warren to give up her magnificent prospects because of your sudden and sickly sentiment; and what more could you ask or wish than this beautiful girl, whose womanhood has awakened and developed under your very eyes, almost as unconsciously as if a rosebud had opened and shown you its heart? Indeed, but a brief time since I would have berated any friend of mine who would not take the sensible course which would make all happy. If I could but become "sane and reasonable," as Miss Warren would say, how she would beam upon me, and, the thought of my disappointment and woe-begone aspect banished, how serenely she would go toward her bright future! And yet in taking this sane and sensible course I would be false to my very soul--false to this simple, true-hearted girl, to whom I could give but a cold, hollow pretence in return for honest love. I would become an arrant hypocrite, devoid of honor and self-respect."
"Heaven bless you, Adah!" I murmured. "I love you too well for all your kindness and goodness to pretend to love you so ill."
Thoughts like these pa.s.sed through my mind as I thanked her for all that she had done for me, and told her of such phases of New York life as I thought would interest her. She listened with so intent and childlike an expression on her face that I could scarcely realize that I was talking to one in whose bosom beat the heart of a woman. I felt rather as if I were telling Zillah a fairy story.
Still I had faith in her intuition, and believed that after I was gone she would recognize and accept the frank, brotherly regard that I now cherished toward her.
Reuben was not very long in joining us, and boy-like did not note that his sister evidently wished him far away. My greeting was so cordial that she noted with a sigh that I did not regard him as the unwelcome third party. Then Mr. Yocomb and the little girls came to the door and asked if there was room for a crowd. Soon after Mrs. Yocomb appeared, with her comely face ruddy from exercise.
"I"ve hurried all I could," she said, "but thee knows how it is with housekeepers; and yet how should thee know, living all thy life alone in dens, as thee said? Why, thee"s having a reception."
"I fear your guests downstairs will feel neglected, Mrs. Yocomb."
"Don"t thee worry about that, Richard," Mr. Yocomb said, laughing. "I"m not so old, mother, but I can remember when we could get through an evening together without help from anybody. I reckon we could do so again--eh? mother? Ha, ha, ha! so thee isn"t too old to blush yet?
How"s that, Richard, for a young girl of sixty? Don"t thee worry about Emily Warren. I fear that any one of us would make a large crowd in the old parlor."
This was sorry comfort, and I fear that my laugh was anything but honest, while Mrs. Yocomb stared out of the window, at which she sat fanning herself, with a fixedness that I well understood.
But they were all so kind and hearty that I could no more give way to dejection than to chill and cheerlessness before a genial wood fire.
They seemed in truth to have taken me into the family. Barely was I now addressed formally as Richard Morton. It was simply "Richard," spoken with the unpremeditated friendliness characteristic of family intercourse. Heathen though I was, I thanked G.o.d that he had brought me among these true-hearted people; "and may He blast me," I muttered, "if I ever relapse into the old sneering cynicism that I once affected. Let me at least leave that vice to half-fledged young men and to bad old men."
One thing puzzled me. Miss Warren remained at her piano, and it struck me as a little odd that she did not find the music of her lover"s voice preferable, but I concluded that music was one of the strongest bonds of sympathy between them, and one of the means by which he had won her affection. Sometimes, as her voice rose clear and sweet to my open windows, I answered remarks addressed to me with an inaptness that only Mrs. Yocomb understood.