The music, which set them wild with enthusiasm, was of the simplest and most stirring sort. That it pleased them so much, showed all too clearly how barren their lives were of songs and color and light.
The people pressed forward to speak a word to Ida; and Bradley, yielding to the pressure of the crowd, was carried forward with it. It stirred him very deeply to see the love and admiration they all felt for her. On all sides he heard words of affection which came straight from the heart. Their utter sincerity could not be doubted. He knew he ought to turn and go away before she saw him, but he could not.
Something in his face attracted a grizzled old farmer, who was moving along beside him, and he turned with a beaming look.
"How"s that for a speech, eh? Did y" ever hear the like of it?"
"No, I never did."
"Ain"t she a wonder, now? D" you s"pose there"s another woman like her in the world?"
Bradley shook his head. He was sure of that!
A gaunt old woman, who wore a dark green-check sunbonnet hanging at the back of her head, put in a word.
"Shows what a woman can do if you give "er a chance."
"h.e.l.lo, Sister Sloc.u.m, you"re always on hand."
"Like a sore thumb, Brother Tobey, an" I don"t know of any one got a bigger interest in downin" the plutes than the farmers" wives--do you?"
It was pathetic, it was unforgettable, to see these people as they stood beside the rounded, supple, splendid figure of the speaker and took her strong, smooth hand in their work-scarred, leathery palms--these women of many children and never-ending work, bent by toil above the wash-tub and the churn, shut out from all things that humanize and make living something more than a brute struggle against hunger and cold.
Ida greeted them smilingly, but her face was quivering with a sadness which she could hardly conceal. Bradley pushed on desperately toward her. At length, as the crowd began to thin out, he moved up and thrust his long arm in over the shoulders of the women.
"Won"t you shake hands with me, too?" he said, and his voice trembled.
She turned quickly, and her face flashed into a smile--a smile different, somehow, from that with which she had greeted the others, and they saw it. It warmed his melancholy soul like a sudden ray of June sunlight.
Her hand met his, strong and firm in its grasp. "Ah! Mr. Talcott, I"m glad to see you."
The farmers" wives began to leave, saying good-by over and over again.
They clung to the girl"s hand, gazing at her with wistful eyes. It seemed as if they could not bear to let her go out of their lives again.
"We may never see you again, dearie," one old woman said, "but we never"ll forgit you. You"ve helped us. I reckon life won"t seem quite so hard now. We kind o" see a glimmer of a way out."
The tears were on her face, and Ida put her arms about the old lady"s neck and kissed her, and then turned away, unable to speak. The chairman, followed by Bradley and Ida, made his way down the steps and out on the grounds, where the streams of people were setting back toward the city. The chairman placed Miss Wilbur in a carriage, and said, "I"ll see you at the hotel."
"Won"t you ride?" she asked.
"No, thank you," he replied, with a jovial gleam in his eyes, and Ida said no more in protest. Bradley, in great trepidation, took a seat beside her.
"Well, Brother Talcott, what do you think of such a meeting as that?"
she asked, after the carriage started, turning upon him with sudden intensity.
"It was like that first meeting of the Grange, when I heard you speak first, only this is more earnest--more desperate, I should say."
"Yes, these people _are_ desperate. It is impossible for the world to realize the earnestness of these farmers. Just see the interest the women-folks take in it! No other movement in history--not even the anti-slavery cause--appealed to the women like this movement here in Kansas. Why, sometimes I go home and walk the floor like a crazy woman--I get so wrought up over it. While our great politicians split hairs on the tariff, people starve. The time has come for rebellion."
Bradley was silent. He sympathized with her feeling, but he could not see very much hope in a revolt.
Her eyes glowed with the fire of prophecy. Bradley gazed at her with apprehensive eyes. She seemed unwholesomely excited. But she broke into a hearty laugh, and said: "You stare. Well, I won"t lecture you any more. What did you do in Washington?"
"Nothing," he replied; and there was something silencing in his voice.
She glanced at his face sharply. She hesitated an instant, then asked:
"Do you go back?"
"No, my political career is ended. I was knifed in the convention."
"You are young."
"I"m not young enough to outgrow such a defeat as that. I"m done."
This mood seemed singularly unlike him, as she had known him before.
She seized upon the situation.
"Come with us. "There is more wool and flax in the fields,"" she quoted.
"I can"t. I don"t see things as you do--I mean I don"t see any cure."
She laid her hand on his arm. "I"m going to convert you. Will you attend one more meeting with me?"
"I"ll go wherever you say," he answered, with an attempt at gallantry.
"I want to take you with me to show you what the people are doing, and what my work is. You"re to ask no questions, but just make yourself ready to go."
Bradley"s mind was in a whirl. Ida seemed so different--not at all like that last letter she had written to him. He felt rather than perceived the change in her. She left him at the hotel door and her parting hand-clasp quickened his breath. An indefinite and unreasonable exultation filled his eyes with light. In the privacy of his room he croaked a few notes before he realized that he could not sing. His gloomy sky had let fall a sudden ray of dazzling sunshine.
x.x.xI.
IDA SHOWS BRADLEY THE WAY OUT.
He did not see her again till the next afternoon. She came out into the ante-room in the hotel looking so lovely he could hardly believe his good fortune.
"Now you are in my hands, Mr. Talcott."
He noticed that she did not call him "Brother" Talcott. He was as boyish and timid as ever, quite subdued by her presence, and followed her out to the omnibus in a daze of delight. He had forgotten all he knew, but he was very content to listen.
She, however, did not seem at all self-conscious. She wore a large cloak and warm gloves, and under the wide rim of her black hat her face was like silver and her eyes like stars. A delicate perfume came from her dress, and reached him across the carriage.