Coniston

"And now," said Cynthia, "don"t you think you had better go?"

Go! He laughed outright. Never! He would sit down under that fortress, and some day he meant to scale the walls. Like John Paul Jones, he had not yet begun to fight. But he did not sit down just yet, because Cynthia remained standing.

"I"m here now," he said, "what"s the good of going away? I might as well stay the rest of the afternoon."

"You will find a photograph alb.u.m on the table," said Cynthia, "with pictures of all the Merrill family and their friends and relations."

In spite of the threat this remark conveyed, he could not help laughing at it. Mrs. Merrill in her sitting room heard the laugh, and felt that she would like Bob Worthington.

"It"s a heavy alb.u.m, Cynthia," he said; "perhaps you would hold up one side of it."

It was Cynthia"s turn to laugh. She could not decide whether he were a man or a boy. Sometimes, she had to admit, he was very much of a man.

"Where are you going?" he cried.

"Upstairs, of course," she answered.

This was really alarming. But fate thrust a final weapon into his hands.

"All right," said he, "I"ll look at the alb.u.m. What time does Mr.

Merrill get home?"

"About six," answered Cynthia. "Why?"

"When he comes," said Bob, "I shall put on my most disconsolate expression. He"ll ask me what I"m doing, and I"ll tell him you went upstairs at half-past four and haven"t come down. He"ll sympathize, I"ll bet anything."

Whether Bob were really capable of doing this, Cynthia could not tell.

She believed he was. Perhaps she really did not intend to go upstairs just then. To his intense relief she seated herself on a straight-backed chair near the door, although she had the air of being about to get up again at any minute. It was not a surrender, not at all--but a parley, at least.

"I really want to talk to you seriously, Bob," she said, and her voice was serious. "I like you very much--I always have--and I want you to listen seriously. All of us have friends. Some people--you, for instance--have a great many. We have but one father." Her voice failed a little at the word. "No friend can ever be the same to you as your father, and no friendship can make up what his displeasure will cost you. I do not mean to say that I shan"t always be your friend, for I shall be."

Young men seldom arrive at maturity by gradual steps--something sets them thinking, a week pa.s.ses, and suddenly the world has a different aspect. Bob had thought much of his father during that week, and had considered their relationship very carefully. He had a few precious memories of his mother before she had been laid to rest under that hideous and pretentious monument in the Brampton hill cemetery. How unlike her was that monument! Even as a young boy, when on occasions he had wandered into the cemetery, he used to stand before it with a lump in his throat and bitter resentment in his heart, and once he had shaken his fist at it. He had grown up out of sympathy with his father, but he had never until now began to a.n.a.lyze the reasons for it. His father had given him everything except that communion of which Cynthia spoke so feelingly. Mr. Worthington had acted according to his lights: of all the people in the world he thought first of his son. But his thoughts and care had been alone of what the son would be to the world: how that son would carry on the wealth and greatness of Isaac D. Worthington.

Bob had known this before, but it had had no such significance for him then as now. He was by no means lacking in shrewdness, and as he had grown older he had perceived clearly enough Mr. Worthington"s reasons for throwing him socially with the Duncans. Mr. Worthington had never been a plain-spoken man, but he had as much as told his son that it was decreed that he should marry the heiress of the state. There were other plans connected with this. Mr. Worthington meant that his son should eventually own the state itself, for he saw that the man who controlled the highways of a state could snap his fingers at governor and council and legislature and judiciary: could, indeed, do more--could own them even more completely than Jethro Ba.s.s now owned them, and without effort. The dividends would do the work: would canva.s.s the counties and persuade this man and that with sufficient eloquence. By such tokens it will be seen that Isaac D. Worthington is destined to become great, though the greatness will be akin to that possessed by those gentlemen who in past ages had built castles across the highway between Venice and the North Sea. All this was in store for Bob Worthington, if he could only be brought to see it. These things would be given him, if he would but confine his worship to the G.o.d of wealth.

We are running ahead, however, of Bob"s reflections in Mr. Merrill"s parlor in Mount Vernon Street, and the ceremony of showing him the cities of his world from Brampton hill was yet to be gone through. Bob knew his father"s plans only in a general way, but in the past week he had come to know his father with a fair amount of thoroughness. If Isaac D. Worthington had but chosen a worldly wife, he might have had a more worldly son. As it was, Bob"s thoughts were a little bitter when Cynthia spoke of his father, and he tried to think instead what his mother would have him do. He could not, indeed, speak of Mr. Worthington"s shortcomings as he understood them, but he answered Cynthia vigorously enough--even if his words were not as serious as she desired.

"I tell you I am old enough to judge for myself, Cynthia," said he, "and I intend to judge for myself. I don"t pretend to be a paragon of virtue, but I have a kind of a conscience which tells me when I am doing wrong, if I listen to it. I have not always listened to it. It tells me I"m doing right now, and I mean to listen to it."

Cynthia could not but think there was very little self-denial attached to this. Men are not given largely to self-denial.

"It is easy enough to listen to your conscience when you think it impels you to do that which you want to do, Bob," she answered, laughing at his argument in spite of herself.

"Are you wicked?" he demanded abruptly.

"Why, no, I don"t think I am," said Cynthia, taken aback. But she corrected herself swiftly, perceiving his bent. "I should be doing wrong to let you come here."

He ignored the qualification.

"Are you vain and frivolous?"

She remembered that she had looked in the gla.s.s before she had come down to him, and bit her lip.

"Are you given over to idle pursuits, to leading young men from their occupations and duties?"

"If you"ve come here to recite the Blue Laws," said she, laughing again, "I have something better to do than to listen to them."

"Cynthia," he cried, "I"ll tell you what you are. I"ll draw your character for you, and then, if you can give me one good reason why I should not a.s.sociate with you, I"ll go away and never come back."

"That"s all very well," said Cynthia, "but suppose I don"t admit your qualifications for drawing my character. And I don"t admit them, not for a minute."

"I will draw it," said he, standing up in front of her. "Oh, confound it!"

This exclamation, astonishing and out of place as it was, was caused by a ring at the doorbell. The ring was followed by a whispering and giggling in the hall, and then by the entrance of the Misses Merrill into the parlor. Curiosity had been too strong for them. Susan was human, and here was the opportunity for a little revenge. In justice to her, she meant the revenge to be very slight.

"Well, Cynthia, you should have come to the concert," she said; "it was fine, wasn"t it, Jane? Is this Mr. Worthington? How do you do. I"m Miss Susan Merrill, and this is Miss Jane Merrill." Susan only intended to stay a minute, but how was Bob to know that? She was tempted into staying longer. Bob lighted the gas, and she inspected him and approved.

Her approval increased when he began to talk to her in his bantering way, as if he had known her always. Then, when she was fully intending to go, he rose to take his leave.

"I"m awfully glad to have met you at last," he said to Susan, "I"ve heard so much about you." His leave-taking of Jane was less effusive, and then he turned to Cynthia and took her hand. "I"m going to Brampton on Friday," he said, "for the holidays. I wish you were going."

"We couldn"t think of letting her go, Mr. Worthington," cried Susan, for the thought of the hills had made Cynthia incapable of answering. "We"re only to have her for one short winter, you know."

"Yes, I know," said Mr. Worthington, gravely. "I"ll see old Ephraim, and tell him you"re well, and what a marvel of learning, you"ve become.

And--and I"ll go to Coniston if that will please you."

"Oh, no, Bob, you mustn"t do anything of the kind," answered Cynthia, trying to keep back the tears. "I--I write to Uncle Jethro very often.

Good-by. I hope you will enjoy your holidays."

"I"m coming to see you the minute I get back and tell you all about everybody," said he.

How was she to forbid him to come before Susan and Jane! She could only be silent.

"Do come, Mr. Worthington," said Susan, warmly, wondering at Cynthia"s coldness and, indeed, misinterpreting it. "I am sure she will be glad to see you. And we shall always make you welcome, at any rate."

As soon as he was out of the door, Susan became very repentant, and slipped her hand about Cynthia"s waist.

"We shouldn"t have come in at all if we had known he would go so soon, indeed we shouldn"t, Cynthia." And seeing that Cynthia was still silent, she added: "I wouldn"t do such a mean thing, Cynthia, I really wouldn"t.

Won"t you believe me and forgive me?"

Cynthia scarcely heard her at first. She was thinking of Coniston mountain, and how the sun had just set behind it. The mountain would be ultramarine against the white fields, and the snow on the hill pastures to the east stained red as with wine. What would she not have given to be going back to-morrow--yes, with Bob. She confessed--though startled by the very boldness of the thought--that she would like to be going there with Bob. Susan"s appeal brought her back to Boston and the gas-lit parlor.

"Forgive you, Susan! There"s nothing to forgive. I wanted him to go."

"You wanted him to go?" repeated Susan, amazed. She may be pardoned if she did not believe this, but a glance at Cynthia"s face scarcely left a room for doubt. "Cynthia Wetherell, you"re the strangest girl I"ve ever known in all my life. If I had a--a friend" (Susan had another word on her tongue) "if I had such a friend as Mr. Worthington, I shouldn"t be in a hurry to let him leave me. Of course," she added, "I shouldn"t let him know it."

Cynthia"s heart was very heavy during the next few days, heavier by far than her friends in Mount Vernon Street imagined. They had grown to love her almost as one of themselves, and because of the sympathy which comes of such love they guessed that her thoughts would be turning homeward at Christmastide. At school she had listened, perforce, to the festival plans of thirty girls of her own age; to accounts of the probable presents they were to receive, the cost of some of which would support a family in Coniston for several months; to arrangements for visits, during which there were to be theatre-parties and dances and other gaieties. Cynthia could not help wondering, as she listened in silence to this talk, whether Uncle Jethro had done wisely in sending her to Miss Sadler"s; whether she would not have been far happier if she had never known about such things.

Then came the last day of school, which began with leave-takings and embraces. There were not many who embraced Cynthia, though, had she known it, this was largely her own fault. Poor Cynthia! how was she to know it? Many more of them than she imagined would have liked to embrace her had they believed that the embrace would be returned. Secretly they had grown to admire this strange, dark girl, who was too proud to bend for the good opinion of any one--even of Miss Sally Broke. Once during the term Cynthia had held some of them--in the hollow of her hand, and had incurred the severe displeasure of Miss Sadler by refusing to tell what she knew of certain mischief-makers.