"Won"t you come in?"
"No, I might worry him."
"Oh, not in the least. He"s asleep anyway, and I"m lonesome. Come in, please."
He followed her into the house, trying to lessen his weight as if he were walking on thin ice; and the old house cracked its knuckles, but his foot-fall made not a sound. She placed a chair for him and sat down with her hands in her lap, and how expressive they were, small and thin, but shapely. She was pale and neat in a black gown. To him she had never looked so frail, and her eyes had never appeared so deeply blue, but her hands--he could not keep his eyes off them--one holding pity and the other full of appeal.
"Don"t you need a little more wood on?" he asked.
"No, it"s not cold enough for much fire."
"Where did you get that cat?"
"She came crying around the other day and I let her in, and she has made herself at home."
"The negroes say it"s good luck for a cat to come to the house." She sighed. "I don"t believe in luck."
"I do. I believe in bad luck, for it"s generally with me. Does your mother come every day?"
"Yes, although I beg her not to."
"I reckon she"ll do about what she wants to. Has the Major----"
She held up her hand and he sat looking at her with his mouth half open.
But at the risk of offending her, he added: "I didn"t know but he might have come over."
"He would, but I won"t let him."
"And do you think it"s exactly right not to let him?"
"I think it is exactly right to do as a something within me dictates,"
she answered. "He placed me in a certain position----"
"But he is more than willing to take you out of it," Taylor broke in.
"He doesn"t want you to remain in that position."
"No, he can"t take me out of it. He charged me with ingrat.i.tude, and I would rather he had driven me off the place. Nothing can be much crueler than to remind one of ingrat.i.tude; it is like shooting from behind a rock; it is having one completely at your mercy."
Now she sat leaning forward with her hands clasped over her knees.
Pennington coughed slightly in his sleep and she looked toward the bed.
She straightened up and put the hair back out of her eyes and Taylor followed the motion of her hand.
"Did he eat the squirrel?"
"Yes, and enjoyed it."
The cat got up, stretched, and rubbing against the tongs, knocked them down with a clatter. Pennington awoke. Louise was beside him in a moment. "Ah, it"s you, Mr. Taylor," he said.
"Yes, but it wasn"t me that made the noise."
"Oh, it didn"t disturb me, I a.s.sure you. I was just about waking up anyway. That will do, thank you." Louise had begun to arrange the pillows. "I"ll sit up. See how strong I am. Give me a pipe. I believe I can smoke a little."
She went to fill a pipe for him, and turning to Taylor, he said: "I"m getting stronger now every day; good appet.i.te, sleep first-rate. And I"ll be able to walk about pretty soon. Oh, they had me dead, you know, but I knew better all the time."
Louise placed a coal upon his pipe and handed it to him. She said that she was afraid it might make him cough, but it did not.
"I have always maintained that there was nothing the matter with my lungs," he said, contentedly blowing rings of smoke. "Why, I hadn"t a symptom of consumption except the cough, and that"s about gone. And my prospects were never better than they are this minute. Received a letter yesterday from over in Alabama--want me to take a professorship in a college. The first thing you know I shall have charge of the entire inst.i.tution. And when I get up in the world I want it understood, Mr.
Taylor, that I shall never forget you. Your kindness----"
"Don"t speak of it," Taylor put in, holding up his hand in imitation of Louise. "I"ve known this little lady, sir, all her life, and I"d be a brute to forget her in time of trouble."
"Yon are a true-hearted man, Mr. Taylor, and I shall never forget you, sir." And after a short silence, he added: "All I desire is a chance, for with it, I can make Louise happy. I need but little money, I should not know how to disport a large fortune, but I do desire a comfortable home with pictures and books. And I thank the Lord that I appreciate the refinements of this life." In silence he smoked, looking up at the rings. "Ah, but it was dark for me a short time ago, Mr. Taylor. They made me believe that I was going to die. We hear a great deal of resignation, of men who welcome the approach of death, but I was in despair. And looking upon a strong man, a man whose strength was thrown upon him, a man who had never thought to take even the slightest care of himself, I was torn with blasphemous rage. It wasn"t right. But thank G.o.d, I lived through that dark period, and am now getting well. Don"t you think so?"
"Why, yes, I can see it. And I"ll tell you what we"ll do: I"ll bring over the dogs pretty soon and we"ll go hunting. How does that strike you?"
Pennington propped himself higher in the bed and put his pipe on a chair. "It has been a long time since I went hunting," he said, musingly. "It seems a long time since I have done anything, except to brood over my failing health. But I will have no more of that. Yes, I will go hunting with you." He shoved up the sleeve of his shirt and called his wife"s attention. "Don"t you think I"m getting more flesh on my arm? Look here. No dying man has this much muscle. Louise, I"m going to get up. There is really no use of my lying here."
He threw off the covers and the giant arose and stood looking upon him, smiling sadly. He asked for his clothes, and when Louise had brought them he picked at a worn spot and said: "I must get some clothes with the first money I earn. I didn"t know that this coat was so far gone.
Why, look, it is almost threadbare; and the trousers are not much better. Let a man get sick and he feels that the world is against him; let him get well and wear poor clothes, and he will find that the world doesn"t think enough of him to set itself against him--find that the world does not know him at all."
Taylor ventured upon the raveled plat.i.tude that clothes do not make the man. Pennington shook his head, still examining his trousers. "That will do in a copy-book, but not in life," said he. And then looking up as Taylor moved toward the door, he asked: "Are you going?"
"Yes, I must get back to see how things are getting along. Be over again to-morrow."
Louise went with him out into the pa.s.sage. He halted at the log step and stood there, looking at her. "Mr. Taylor, I can never forget your kindness," she said.
"All right, but I hope you won"t remember to mention it again."
He looked at her hands, looked into her eyes; and frankly she returned his gaze, for it was a gaze long and questioning.
"Your friendship----" he held up his hand to stop her. "Won"t you let me speak of that, either?"
"You may speak of it, but you must know that it does not exist," he answered, leaning against a corner of the house, still looking at her.
"But you don"t mean that you are not my friend?"
"I mean what I told you some time ago--that there can be no friendship between a big man and a little woman."
"Oh, I had forgotten that."
"No, you hadn"t; you thought of it just then as you spoke."
"Why, Mr. Taylor, how can you say that?"
"I can say it because it is true. No, there can be no friendship between us."
"You surely don"t mean that there can be anything else." She had drawn back from him and was stiffly erect with her arms folded, her head high; and so narrow was the hard look she gave him that her eyes appeared smaller. Her lips were so tightly compressed that dimples showed in her cheeks; and thus with nature"s soft relics of babyhood, she denied her own resentment.
"On your part I don"t presume that there can be anything else," he answered, speaking the words slowly, as if he would weigh them one at a time on the tip of his tongue. "You may think of me as you please, as circ.u.mstances now compel you to think, and I will think of you not as I please, but as I must."