"Thank G.o.d! So am I. But why, oh, why when we met by the spring just now, why, when I was crazed with joy and fear at the sudden sight of you, why did you turn away and leave me?" she pa.s.sionately demanded.
He looked at her serenely, incisively, and answered, calmly, quietly:
"Dear, because you shrank from me, threw your hands up before your eyes, as if to shut out the sight of me. Dear, your own sudden appearance before me at the spring, to which I had gone for my noonday draught of water, nearly overwhelmed me; but I readily recovered myself and understood it, connected it with the trail below, and concluded that you were on your way to Farthermost to join your brother, whom I had heard of as one of the officers of the new fort. Then, believing that my presence distressed you, I went away."
"Oh, Rule!"
After a little while Rothsay inquired:
"Was not that Mr. Clarence Rockharrt whom I saw with you by the spring?"
"Yes; Uncle Clarence. He helped me up to this ledge, and then he stayed outside while I came in here to look for you."
"Let us go and bring him in now, dear," said Rule.
And the two walked out together.
But no one was to be seen on the plateau; only, on the ground under the pine tree where Mr. Clarence had rested was a piece of white paper, kept in place by a small stone laid upon it.
Rule picked up the stone, and handed the paper to Cora.
It proved to be a leaf from Mr. Clarence"s pocket tablets, and on it was written:
"I am going down the mountain to tell Captain Neville that my party will camp here to-night, and join him at the fort to-morrow, so that he may go on with his train at once, if he should see fit.
CLARENCE."
"He saw you receive me; he knew it was all right; then he grew tired of waiting for me. He thought I had forgotten him, and so I had, and he left this paper and went down to the trail," Corona explained with a smile.
"Shall we go down and see your friends, Cora? Tell me what you wish, dear," said Rothsay.
Corona looked at her watch, and then replied:
"Courtesy would have required me to go down and take leave of Captain and Mrs. Neville before leaving them, but it is too late now. Their caravan is on the march by this time. They were to have resumed their route at two o"clock. It is after three now."
"We can go to Farthermost later, dear. It is but half a day"s ride from here. Shall we go down the mountain and join Clarence? Is it your wish, Cora?"
"No, not yet. He is very well as he is. He can wait for us. Let us sit down here together. I have so much to tell, and so much to hear," said Corona.
"Yes, dear; and I also have "so much to tell, and so much to hear,""
a.s.sented Rothsay, as they sat down at the foot of the young pine tree, with their backs to the rising cliffs and their faces to the descending mountain, the brook at its foot, and the vast, sunlit prairie, in its autumn coat of dry gra.s.s, rolling in smooth hills and hollows of gold and bronze off to the distant horizon.
"Tell me, dear, of all that has befallen you in these dark years that have parted us. Tell me of your grandparents. Do they still live?"
inquired Rothsay.
"Ah, no!" replied Corona. And then she entered upon the family history of the last four years and four months, since Rule had disappeared, and told him of the sudden death of her dear old grandmother on the very day on which the false report of Rothsay"s murder reached them.
She told him of her Uncle Fabian"s marriage to Violet Wood a year later.
Of her widowed grandfather"s second marriage to Mrs. Stillwater, whom Rothsay had known in his childhood as Miss Rose Flowers.
Of the recent death of this second wife, followed very soon after by that of the aged widower.
And finally she told him of her own resolution to follow her brother Sylvan to his post of duty at Fort Farthermost, to open a mission home school for Indian children, and to devote her life and fortune to their service; and of the good opportunity offered her by the kindness of Colonel Z. in procuring for her the escort of Captain and Mrs. Neville, who were on their way to Farthermost with a party of recruits.
"And Clarence? How came he to be of the company?" inquired Rothsay.
"Uncle Clarence could not agree with Uncle Fabian in business policy. So they dissolved partnership very amicably and with mutual satisfaction.
This was after I had left Rockhold. Clarence gathered up his wealth, brought three devoted servants with him, and set out to follow me. At St. Louis he purchased wagons, tents, horses, mules, and every convenience for crossing the plains. He overtook and surprised us at Fort Leavenworth on the very day of our intended departure for Farthermost."
"Clarence came for your sake."
"Yes; and he has enjoyed the journey. On the free prairie he has been like a boy out of school--so buoyant, so joyous--the life of the whole company."
"What will he do now?"
"I think he will go on to Farthermost for this season. After this I do not know what he will do or where he will go."
"He will remain in this quarter, which offers a grand field for a man like Clarence Rockharrt," said Rothsay.
"I should think it might--in the future," replied Corona.
"In the near future. The tide of emigration is pouring into this section so fast that very soon the ground will be disputed with the Mexican government, and true men and brave men will be much wanted here."
"Yes," said Corona, indifferently, for she cared very little at this moment for public interests. "But tell me of yourself, Rule. I long to hear you talk of yourself."
Rothsay was no egotist. He never had been addicted to speaking of himself or of his feelings.
Now, at her urgent request, he told her in brief how he had renounced all his honors in the country for the sake of the woman for whose sake, also, he had first striven to win them and had won them.
"Dear," he said, "from the time you first noticed me, when you were a sweet child of seven summers and I a boy of twelve--yes, winters--for while all your years had been summers, dear--summers of love, shelter, comfort, luxury--all my years had been winters of loss, want, orphanage, and dest.i.tution--you were my help, support, inspiration. I longed to be worthy of your friendship, your interest, your sympathy. And for all these things I toiled, endured, and struggled."
"I know! Oh, I know!" said Corona, earnestly.
"Yes, dear, you know it all. For who but you were with me in the spirit through all the struggle, helping, supporting, encouraging, until you seemed to me my muse, my soul, my inner and purer and higher self. Dear, I wronged you when I connected your love with this world"s pride. I wronged you bitterly, and I have suffered for it and made you suffer--"
"Oh, no, no, no, Rule! The fault was all my own! I am not so good and wise as you!" exclaimed Corona.
"Hush, dear! Hush! Hear me out!" said Rothsay, laying his hand gently on her head.
"Well, go on, but don"t blame yourself. Oh, "_chevalier sans peur et sans reproche_,"" said Corona, fervently.
He resumed very quietly:
"When I had reached a position in this world"s honor to which I dared to invite you, then I laid my victory at your feet and prayed you to share it. And, Corona, when the bishop had blessed our nuptials, I dreamed that we were blessed indeed. You know, dear, what a miserable awakening I had from that dream on the evening of our wedding day."
"It was my fault! It was my fault! Oh, vain, foolish, infatuated woman that I was!" cried Corona.
"No, dear; you were not to blame. You were true, candid, natural through it all. Our betrothal, dear, was on your part the betrothal of friends.
You did not know your own heart then. You went abroad with your grandparents, and, after two years of travel, you were thrown in the court circles of London, and exposed to all the splendors, temptations and fascinations of rank, culture and refinement, such as you had never met at home in your rural neighborhood. You were caught, dazzled, bewildered. You thought you loved the English duke who sought your hand--"