"My work?" echoed Champ. This was a strange place in which to be reminded of that marshland forest! His work, indeed! What would Luce say if she knew how that work had come about? What a gulf there seemed between him and her, although they were sitting face to face, and not three feet apart! The strangeness of the situation affected Champ so strongly that he lapsed into absent-mindedness, and it took several questions to recall him.
After that the delicate subject was avoided for a little while, and Champ was so rejoiced to find that it really was not hard to talk to an intelligent young woman that he soon felt quite at ease- nay, proud of himself. Besides, as he told himself, he had earned the right to chat with Luce Grew. Well, the right had been accorded him, most unexpectedly, and he was going to enjoy it to the best of his ability. The evening should be one which he would remember for years, and the recollection of it would help him through many a lonesome hour.
He would never forget her face either; it had been in his mind for years, but never as it appeared that evening- never so handsome, animated, so full of cheer and yet full of soul. What a fool he had been to have delayed his pleasure so long!
Had he been more of a "company man" earlier in life, he might at least have numbered Luce among his friends, and who knows what better might have happened if he had enjoyed the stimulus which her face, her eyes, her manner, her voice, her entire presence, now gave him? He tried to a.n.a.lyze it, but he succeeded only in informing himself that it was solely because she was Luce Grew.
Time flew rapidly, but Champ took no note of it. The old clock in the kitchen struck loudly, but Champ did not hear it. For the time being he was in Elysium; yet really they talked only of village affairs and church matters and the doings of the various farmers. How different common subjects did appear when there was such a person as Luce to talk them over with!
Suddenly one of the children entered and handed Luce a letter.
"How strange!" she exclaimed. Letters delivered by hand were as rare during Brundy evenings as snowflakes in May. Suddenly she turned pale and exclaimed: "Why, it"s from Charley!"
With trembling hands she tore the envelope; Champ frowned and arose to go. Even from a distance, and on this one evening of all evenings, that bane of his existence was still active in making trouble for him.
Luce took from the envelope two inclosures, looked at them, and said: "Why, one of them is for you!"
"Ah, something about that wood-chopping, I suppose," said Champ, opening his letter. It did not take him long to read it, for Charley wrote a large, round, schoolboy hand. The letter ran thus: "Dear Champ:- Marry Luce. She knows how you love her, for I had to tell her all about it. That isn"t all; she loves you too she couldn"t help it after she knew all. That"s why I have gone West. G.o.d bless you both. Yours always, "CHARLEY.".
Champ looked up, startled by a slight exclamation from Luce. The girl was leaning against the table, upon which she had dropped her letter. Champ did not mean to read it; but the letter itself was so short and the penmanship so large that he could not help getting its entire contents at a glance.
"Miss Grew," said he quickly, although his voice trembled, "I"ve accidentally seen your letter. It"s only fair, therefore, that you should read mine."
He extended it toward her. She took it slowly took a long, long time, it seemed to Champ, to read it, but finally she looked up, smiled timidly, and said: "Well?"
"Luce!" exclaimed Champ, taking the girl"s hands. What either of them said afterward was entirely their own affair.
"I saw how things were going pretty soon after they began to go wrong between Luce and Charley," said old Pruffett to Champ the next day; "and when the boy admitted to me that he had told her all about your confession to him, I made up my mind that it was all up with him, because well, I knew her mother, and it"s grand good stock. Eh? Then why didn"t her mother take me? Because the other man was the better man, my boy, just as you are the better man than Charley. I doubted her being able- doubted Luce, I mean, being able- to give her heart entirely to a youth like Charley, though there are a lot of good points about him; and I hoped that it might turn out in time, as it has, that both he and she would learn their mistake, and that your chance would come. In the meantime, what I said to you, and you acted upon, was just what you needed to make you search your heart and find out for whom you really loved Luce- for yourself, or for her. That"s something that the best men sometimes fail to find out until it is too late, my boy, and they have a world of unhappiness about it."
"But how did you come to send Charley away at just the right time?"
"How? Because the right time had come. I had been giving my own entire time to watching for it. I wonder if those two young people could possibly imagine how closely their affairs interested an old man who was supposed to do nothing but gossip about town and read the newspapers. Charley made a clean breast to me about his trouble. I went to see the girl"s mother- I"ve already told you about her- and found things about as I supposed. Then I talked with the girl herself.
The rest of it was easy enough."
"Yes, to a man who had business in the West; but suppose there had been no such help for me?""
"My dear boy," said the old man, "there"s an old Western saying that may do you good to bear in mind: "Never cross a stream until you reach it." There was a man here to send Charley to the West, so you can afford to drop that part of the subject."
"But everything worked as well as if it had been managed by Heaven itself," said Champ.
"I don"t for a moment doubt that it was," replied the old man, reverently dropping his head for a moment. Such things usually are- when the parties deserve special attention.
"I don"t see, though, how Charley timed those letters to arrive just right,"
persisted Champ. "He must be a thousand miles away by this time. He didn"t know that I would ever call at the Grews" in the course of my life."
Old Pruffett looked embarra.s.sed; then he said: "I"ve heard that new-made lovers are very slow of perception. Why, you stupid fellow, Charley wrote those letters and gave them to me before he left; he did it, willingly enough, at my own suggestion. I personally made you promise to call last night; then I stood in the night air for nearly an hour, a few rods from your house, to make sure that you did it, even if I had to drag you out and carry you there. Then I followed you, hung about the Grews" for a while, with my heart In my throat, for fear you"d come away soon- you seemed so scared at the idea of going, you know. Finally I slipped across the street into the yard- I"m glad the Grews don"t own one of those annoying small dogs that bark at every one who ventures upon the premises- I slipped into the yard, and peeped through one of the windows. Yes, sir, I did. I know it wasn"t exactly mannerly, but business is business, and the whole affair was very serious business to me, I can tell you. I saw you both getting along pretty well together, so I thought it would make matters all the easier afterward to let you go on. Finally the night air began to make me so chilly that I had to hurry matters in self-defence, so I slipped round to the back door and got one of the children to deliver the note, first making him promise not to tell who left it. Then I looked through the window again; I really didn"t feel comfortable about doing it, Champ, but it was a matter of business with me. I hope your heart didn"t thump as mine did while you two were reading those letters I waited until I saw you take Luce"s hand, and then- don"t blush- then I went home, got down on my knees, and thanked G.o.d that I had known Luce"s mother."
"And poor Charley!" said Champ, with a sigh.
"Ah, well, "tis better for him to have lost Luce than not to have been in love with her. I loved her mother, and I know."