"Then he knows," exclaimed the mother, "you"re true gold!"
"Yes, but a light coin."
"My pet! He knows you"re the tenderest, gentlest dear he ever saw."
"But neither brave nor strong."
"Oh, you not brave! you not strong! You"re the lovingest, truest"--
"Only inclined to be a bit too hungry after sympathy, dear."
"You never bid for it, love, never."
"Well, no matter; I shall never love any one but myself too much. I think I shall some day love Arthur as I wish I could love him now. I never did really love Leonard,--I couldn"t; I haven"t the stature. That was my trouble, dearie: I hadn"t the stature. I never shall have; and if it"s he you are thinking of, you are wasting your dear, sweet care. But he"s going to be our best and nearest friend, mother,--he and Ruth and G.o.dfrey, together and alike. We"ve so agreed, Arthur and I. Oh, I"m not going to come in here and turn the sweet old nickname of this happy spot into a sneer."
"Then why are you not happy, precious?"
"Happy? Why, my dear, I am happy!"
"With touches of heartache?"
"Oh, with big wrenches of heartache! Why not? Were you never so?"
"I"m so right now, dearie. For after all is said"--
"And thought that can"t be said"--murmured Isabel.
"Yes," replied the mother, "after all is said and thought, I should rather give you to Arthur than to any other man I know. Leonard will have a shining career, but it will be in politics."
"I tried to dissuade him," broke in the daughter, "till I was ashamed."
"In politics," continued Mrs. Morris,--"and Northern politics, Isabel.
Arthur"s will be in the church!"
"Yes," said the other, but her whole attention was within the fence at their side, where a rough stile, made in boyhood days by the two brothers and Leonard, led over into the garden. She sprang up. "Let"s go, mother; he"s coming!"
"Who, my child?"
"Both! Come, dear, come quickly! Oh, I don"t know why we ever came out at all!"
"My dear, it was you proposed it, lest some one should come in!"
The daughter had moved some steps down the road, but now turned again; for Ruth and G.o.dfrey, returning, came out through the garden"s high gateway. However, they were giving all their smiles to the greetings which the General sent them from his piazza.
"Come over, mother!" called Isabel, in a stifled voice. "Cross to the hill path!" But before they could reach it Arthur and Leonard came into full view on the stile. Isabel motioned her mother despairingly toward them, wheeled once more, and with a gay call for Ruth"s notice hurried to meet her in the middle of the way.
III
ARTHUR AND LEONARD
G.o.dfrey pa.s.sed over to the General, who had walked down to his gate on his way to the great elm. Out from behind the elm came the other two men, Arthur leading and talking briskly:--
"The sooner the better, Leonard. Now while my work is new and taking shape--Ah! here"s Mrs. Morris."
Both men were handsome. Arthur, not much older than Ruth, was of medium height, slender, restless, dark, and eager of glance and speech. Leonard was nearer the age of G.o.dfrey; fairer than Arthur, of a quieter eye, tall, broad-shouldered, powerful, lithe, and almost tamely placid. Mrs.
Morris met them with animation.
"Have our churchwarden and our rector been having another of their long talks?"
The joint reply was cut short by G.o.dfrey"s imperative hail: "Leonard!"
As Byington turned that way, Arthur said quietly to Mrs. Morris, "He"s promised to retain charge"--and nodded toward Isabel. The nod meant Isabel"s financial investments.
"And mine?" murmured the well-pleased lady.
"Both."
The two gave heed again to G.o.dfrey, who was loudly asking Leonard, "Why didn"t you tell us the news?"
"Oh," drawled Leonard smilingly, "I knew father would."
"I haven"t talked with G.o.dfrey since he came," said Mrs. Morris; and as she left Arthur she asked his brother: "What news? Has the governor truly made him"--
"District attorney, yes," said G.o.dfrey. "Ruth, I think you might have told me."
"G.o.dfrey, I think you might have asked me," laughed the girl, drawing Isabel toward Arthur and Leonard, in order to leave Mrs. Morris to G.o.dfrey.
Arthur moved to meet them, but Ruth engaged him with a question, and Isabel turned to Leonard, offering her felicitations with a sweetness that gave Arthur tearing pangs to overhear.
"But when people speak to us of your high office," he could hear her saying, "we will speak to them of your high fitness for it. And still, Leonard, you must let us offer you our congratulations, for it is a high office."
"Thank you," replied Leonard: "let me save the congratulations for the day I lay the office down. Do you, then, really think it high and honorable?"
"Ah," she rejoined, in a tone of reproach and defense that tortured Arthur, "you know I honor the pursuit of the law."
Leonard showed a glimmer of drollery. "Pursuit of the law, yes," he said; "but the pursuit of the lawbreaker"--
"Even that," replied Isabel, "has its frowning honors."
"But I"m much afraid it seems to you," he said, "a sort of blindman"s buff played with a club. It often looks so to the pursued, they say."
Isabel gave her chin a little lift, and raised her tone for those behind her: "We shall try not to be among the pursued, Ruth and Arthur and I."
The young lawyer"s smile broadened. "My mind is relieved," he said.