"Ain"t you well?"
"I reckon not--not overly well."
There was a silence, both looking at the fire.
"You don"t get anything out of that hill-side?" asked Mrs. Conroy at last, pettishly.
"No," said Gabriel.
"You have prospected all over the ridge?" continued the woman, impatiently.
"All over!"
"And you don"t find anything?"
"Nothin"," said Gabriel. "Nary. Thet is," he added with his usual cautious deliberation, "thet is, nothin" o" any account. The gold, ef there is any, lies lower down in the gulch, whar I used to dig. But I kept at it jest to satisfy your whim. You know, July, it _was_ a whim of yours," he continued, with a certain gentle deprecatoriness of manner.
A terrible thought flashed suddenly upon Mrs. Conroy. Could Dr. Devarges have made a mistake? Might he not have been delirious or insane when he wrote of the treasure? Or had the Secretary deceived her as to its location? A swift and sickening sense that all she had gained, or was to gain, from her scheme, was the man before her--and that _he_ did not love her as other men had--a.s.serted itself through her trembling consciousness. Mrs. Conroy had already begun to fear that she loved this husband, and it was with a new sense of yearning and dependence that she in her turn looked deprecatingly and submissively into his face and said--
"It _was_ only a whim, dear--I dare say a foolish one. It"s gone now.
Don"t mind it!"
"I don"t," said Gabriel, simply.
Mrs. Conroy winced.
"I thought you looked disappointed," she said after a pause.
"It ain"t that I was thinkin" on, July; it"s Olly," said Gabriel.
There is a limit even to a frightened woman"s submission.
"Of course," she said, sharply; "Olly, Olly again and always. I ought to have remembered that."
"Thet"s so," said Gabriel with the same exasperating quiet. "I was reckonin" jest now, ez there don"t seem to be any likeliness of you and Olly"s gettin" on together, you"d better separate. Thar ain"t no sense goin" on this way, July--no sense et all. And the worst o" the hull thing ez thet Olly ain"t gettin" no kinder good outer it, no way!"
Mrs. Conroy was very pale and dangerously quiet as Mr. Conroy went on.
"I"ve allers allowed to send that child to school, but she don"t keer to go. She"s thet foolish, thet Olly is, thet she doesn"t like to leave me, and I reckon I"m thet foolish too thet I don"t like to hev her go. The only way to put things square ez this"----
Mrs. Conroy turned and fixed her grey eyes upon her husband, but she did not speak.
"You"d better go away," continued Gabriel, quietly, "for a while. I"ve heerd afore now that it"s the reg"lar thing fur a bride to go away and visit her mother. You hain"t got no mother," said Gabriel thoughtfully, "hev ye?--that"s bad. But you was a sayin" the other day suthin" about some business you had down at "Frisco. Now it would be about the nateral sort o" thing for ye to go thar fur two or three months, jest till things get round square with Olly and me."
It is probable that Gabriel was the only man from whom Mrs. Conroy could have received this humiliating proposition without interrupting him with a burst of indignation. Yet she only turned a rigid face towards the fire again with a hysterical laugh.
"Why limit my stay to two or three months?" she said.
"Well, it might be four," said Gabriel, simply--"it would give me and Olly a longer time to get things in shape."
Mrs. Conroy rose and walked rigidly to her husband"s side.
"What," she said huskily, "what if I were to refuse?"
Gabriel looked as if this suggestion would not have been startling or inconsistent as an abstract possibility in woman, but said nothing.
"What," continued Mrs. Conroy, more rapidly and huskily, "what if I were to tell _you_ and that brat to go! What," she said, suddenly raising her voice to a thin high soprano, "what if I were to turn you both out of this house--_my_ house! off this land--_my_ land! Eh? eh? eh?" she almost screamed, emphasising each interrogatory with her thin hand on Gabriel"s shoulder, in a desperate but impotent attempt to shake him.
"Certingly, certingly," said Gabriel calmly. "But thar"s somebody at the door, July," he continued quietly, as he rose slowly and walked into the hall.
His quick ear had detected a knocking without, above the truculent pitch of Mrs. Conroy"s voice. He threw open the door, and disclosed Olly and Sal standing upon the threshold.
It is scarcely necessary to say that Sal was first to recover the use of that n.o.ble organ, the tongue.
"With chills and ager in every breath--it"s an hour if it"s five minutes that we"ve stood here," she began, "pounding at that door. "You"re interrupting the young couple, Sal," sez I, "comin" yer this time o"
night, breakin" in, so to speak, on the holiest confidences," sez I; "but it"s business, and onless you hev thet to back you, Sarah Clark," I sez, "and you ain"t a woman ez ever turned her back on thet or them, you ain"t no call there." But I was to fetch this child home, Mrs. Conroy,"
continued Sal, pushing her way into the little sitting-room, "and"----
She paused, for the room was vacant. Mrs. Conroy had disappeared.
"I thought I heerd"----said Sal, completely taken aback.
"It was only Gabe," said Olly, with the ready mendacity of swift feminine tact. "I told you so. Thank you, Sal, for seeing me home. Good night, Sal," and, with a dexterity that smote Gabriel into awesome and admiring silence, she absolutely led the breathless Sal to the door and closed it upon her before that astonished female could recover her speech.
Then she returned quietly, took off her hat and shawl, and taking the unresisting hand of her brother, led him back to his former seat by the fire. Drawing a low stool in front of him, she proceeded to nestle between his knees--an old trick of hers--and once more taking his hand, stroked it between her brown fingers, looked up into his face, and said--
"Dear old Gabe!"
The sudden smile that irradiated Gabriel"s serious face would have been even worse provocation to Mrs. Conroy than his previous conduct.
"What was the matter, Gabe?" said Olly; "what was she saying when we came in?"
Gabriel had not, since the entrance of his sister, thought of Mrs.
Conroy"s parting speech and manner. Even now its full significance did not appear to have reached him.
"I disremember, Olly," he replied, looking down into Olly"s earnest eyes, "suthin" or other; she was techy, thet"s all."
"But wot did she mean by saying that the house and lands was hers?"
persisted the child.
"Married folks, Olly," said Gabriel, with the lazy, easy manner of vast matrimonial experience, "married folks hev little jokes and ways o"
thar own. Bein" onmarried yourself, ye don"t know. "With all my worldly goods I thee endow," thet"s all--thet"s what she meant, Olly. "With all my worldly goods I thee endow." Did you hev a good time down there?"
"Yes," said Olly.
"You"ll hev a nice time here soon, Olly," said Gabriel.
Olly looked incredulously across the hall toward the door of Mrs.