"And do you fancy for a moment that you understand me?"
"Perhaps not; but I can see--I"m not blind!"
"Oh, yes, jealous people can see things that no one else can," laughed Inza, with a provoking toss of her proud head.
"Do you want to make me hate you forever, Inza Burrage?" Elsie cried.
"You hurt me! You are heartless!"
A sudden look of deep pain shone in Inza"s face, changing her manner in a twinkling, and she turned away as if trying to conceal it.
"Of course, nothing ever hurts me!" she said bitterly. "I am steel and iron, and all that! Your heart is tender, and such things hurt you!"
Elsie did not know what to say. She had tried to feel for a time that Inza had ceased to care for Frank, and then had told herself that Inza had no longer any right to care for him. She was beginning to realize that questions of right and wrong cut very little figure in affairs of the heart--that, in fact, love obeys no such laws.
When Inza turned back, her face had lost its trace of pain.
"Elsie," she said, "we will not quarrel about Frank, for Frank"s sake.
It would distress him if he knew it. He must never know it. Promise me that you will not say a word to him about it."
"Of course I won"t say anything about it," Elsie agreed. "I should fear to, and I shouldn"t want to."
"Then we"ll keep it to ourselves. You have discovered that I haven"t ceased to care for Frank Merriwell. Perhaps I never shall. But that is neither here nor there."
The old wave of jealousy swept across the tortured soul of Elsie Bellwood.
"Do you mean that you intend to win him if you can, after you have told me that you surrender all claim on him?"
"I haven"t said anything of the kind. But I claim the right and privilege of talking to him and with him as much as I please. You and he are not engaged, even if he has seemed to prefer you. He may change his mind, just as he did before, but remember that I"m not trying to get him to!"
"Then you do intend to try to win him?"
"My dear, you must recognize the fact that Frank is the one to do the winning. I shall never run after any man."
Elsie"s blue eyes flashed.
"Do you mean to insinuate that I would?"
"I thought we weren"t going to quarrel!"
The look of pain came back into the dark, handsome face, and this time Elsie saw it. A feeling of remorse began to tug at her heart.
"I am not worthy of Frank Merriwell," she said softly. "I know that. But I thought----"
"You thought nothing could hurt me!"
"No, not that. I thought he was to be mine, and recently that hope has been slipping through my fingers. I can"t tell you, Inza, how I have felt."
"I can understand!" said the dark-haired girl. "I have good cause to understand!"
"I know that really you are more worthy of him, Inza, than I am. I have always thought that, when I wasn"t crazy with the fear that you might win him away from me. But I just can"t surrender my claim, slender as you think it!"
"For Frank"s sake," repeated Inza, "we will not quarrel about him! As for these other questions----"
Winnie"s light step was heard in the hall, and the sentence died unfinished.
CHAPTER V.
HODGE"S REPENTANCE.
Bart Hodge absented himself from cla.s.s and lecture, but later that night, after all the members of the "flock" had departed from Merriwell"s room, Bart came in. His face was flushed and feverish.
"I don"t care what the other fellows think, Merry!" he said, dropping into a chair as if he felt that he had no right there. "But I do care what you think! I went away in a huff, saying to myself that I"d never come back until you sent for me, when I knew that you wouldn"t send for me, and that I would come back. And here I am."
"How could I have sent for you, Bart?" Merry questioned. "I knew you would feel differently when you had time to think it all over, and I told the fellows so."
"I don"t care for their opinions!" Bart snarled. "I"d never come back for any of them!"
"They are my friends!"
"I"ve been miserable ever since. I have felt like a cur as I"ve sneaked round town. You needn"t try to stop me! You are the truest friend I ever had, and I"ve treated you like a dog. I know it, and I"m sorry for it."
"I am your friend, Bart, because I understand you, and appreciate you.
The others would think as much of you as I do, if they understood you as well. We"ll not talk any more about this matter, if you"re willing, but just turn in for the night and say nothing about it."
"How can you overlook a thing like that?" Hodge asked.
"Because I knew all the time that your better nature condemned what you did, and that you would by and by yield to your better nature. The man who meets a powerful temptation and finally masters it is stronger really than one who never is tempted. I forgave you long ago, Bart, and would have told you so if you had come back. I was angry at the time, but I didn"t remain angry."
"I"ve come back to tell you that I"ll catch for you to-morrow--Sat.u.r.day.
I swore I"d never catch for Buck Badger, but I will. I"ll catch for the Old Boy himself, if you want me to. I"m not ready to agree that he ought to be permitted to pitch, for I hate the very sight of him; but I have put that by, and will catch for you. It will be catching for you, you see, Merry, and not for him. I ought to have looked at it that way before, but I could not."
"I have got Jack Ready for catcher!"
Bart gasped, while his dark face seemed to get redder and hotter.
"Why, he can"t catch!"
"Much better than you think. He is a pretty fair catcher."
"And if he falls down?"
"I"ll put some one else in. I have two or three in mind, and have spoken to two of them."
Hodge seemed stunned.