"You"ve been busier than we."
"Mighty poor sign of industry. I didn"t come out for game, but a man"s sure to be sorry if he goes into the woods without a gun. I mean, of course, Miss Garnet, if he"s alone!"
Barbara answered with a smile and a wicked drawl, "You"ve been enjoying both ad-van-tag-es. I used to wish I was a squirrel, they"re so en-er-get-ic." She added that she would be satisfied now to remain as she was if she could only get home safe. She reckoned they could find the road if Mr. March would tell them how.
John smiled seriously. "Better let me show you." He moved down the middle of the stream. "This used to be the right road, long time ago.
You know, Mr. Fair"--his voice rang in the trees, "our mountain roads just take the bed of the nearest creek whenever they can. Our people are not a very business people. But that"s because they"ve got the rare virtue of contentment. Now--"
"I don"t think they"re too contented, Mr. March," said Barbara, defensively. "Why, Mr. Fair, how much this creek and road are like ours at Rosemont!"
"It"s the same creek," called March.
By and by they left it and rode abreast through woods. There was much badinage, in which Barbara took the aggressive, with frequent hints at Fannie that gave John delicious pain and convinced him that Miss Garnet was, after all, a fine girl. Fair became so quiet that John asked him two or three questions.
"O no!" laughed Fair, he could stay but a day or two. He said he had come this time from "quite a good deal" of a stay in Texas and Mexico, and his father had written him that he was needed at home. "Which is absurd, you know," he added to Barbara.
"Per-fect-ly," she said. But he would not skirmish.
"Yes," he replied. "But all the same I have to go. I"m sorry."
"We"re sorry at Rosemont."
"I shall be sorry at Widewood," echoed March.
"I regret it the more," responded Fair, "from having seen Widewood so much and yet so little. Miss Garnet believes in a great future for Widewood. It was in trying to see something of it that we lost----"
But Barbara protested. "Mr. Fair, we rode hap-hazard! We simply chanced that way! What should I know, or care, about lands? You"re confusing me with pop-a! Which is doub-ly ab-surd!"
"Most a.s.suredly!" laughed the young men.
"You know, Mr. March, pop-a"s so proud of the Widewood tract that I believe, positively, he"s jealous of anyone"s seeing it without him for a guide. You"d think it held the key of all our fates."
"Which is triply absurd!"
"Superlatively!" drawled Barbara, and laughing was easy. They came out upon the pike as March was saying to Fair:
"I"d like to show you my lands; they"re the key of my fate, anyhow."
"They"re only the lock," said Barbara, musingly. "The key is--elsewhere."
John laughed. He thought her witty, and continued with her, though the rest of the way to Rosemont was short and plain. Presently she turned upon the two hors.e.m.e.n a pair of unaggressive but invincible eyes, saying, languorously,
"Mr. March, I want you to show Widewood to Mr. Fair--to-morrow. Pop-a"s been talking about showing it to him, but I want him to see it with just you alone."
To Fair there always seemed a reserve of merriment behind Miss Garnet"s gravity, and a reserve of gravity behind her brightest gayety. This was one thing that had drawn him back to Rosemont. Her ripples never hid her depths, yet she was never too deep to ripple. I give his impressions for what they may be worth. He did not formulate them; he merely consented to stay a day longer. A half-moon was growing silvery when John said good-by at the gate of the campus.
"Now, in the morning, Mr. Fair, I"ll meet you somewhere between here and the pike. I wish I could say you"d meet my mother, but she"s in poor health--been so ever since the war."
That night Garnet lingered in his wife"s room to ask--
"Do you think Barb really missed the road, or was that----"
"Yes, they took the old creek road by mistake."
"Has Fair--said anything to her?"
"No; she didn"t expect or wish it----"
"Well, I don"t see why."
--"And he"s hardly the sort to do unexpected things."
"They"ve agreed to ride right after breakfast. What d"you reckon that"s for?"
"Not what you wish. But still, for some reason she wants you to leave him entirely to himself."
College being in session breakfast was early.
"Barb, you"ll have to take care of Mr. Fair to-day, I reckon. You might take my horse, sir. I"ll be too busy indoors to use him."
The girl and her cavalier took but a short gallop. They had nearly got back to the grove gate when he ventured upon a personal speech; but it was only to charge her with the art of blundering cleverly.
She a.s.sured him that her blunders were all nature and her art accident.
"Whenever I want to be witty I get into a hurry, and haste is the an-ti-dote of wit."
"Miss Garnet," he thought, as her eyes rested calmly in his, "your gaze is too utterly truthful."
"Ah!" said Barbara, "here"s Mr. March now."
Fair wished he might find out why Miss Garnet should be out-man[oe]uvring her father.
x.x.xI.
MR. FAIR VENTURES SOME INTERROGATIONS
The air was full of joy that morning, and John boyishly open and hearty.
"Fact is, Mr. Fair, I don"t care for young ladies" company. Half of them are frauds and the rest are a delusion and a snare--ha-ha-ha! Miss Garnet is new goods, as the boys say, and I"m not fashionable. Even our mothers ain"t very well acquainted yet; though my mother"s always regretted it; their tastes differ. My mother"s literary, you know."
"They say Miss Garnet"s a great romp--among other girls--and an unmerciful mimic."
"Don"t you rather like that?"