"I"m afraid I"m disturbing you," he said, as they both rose to welcome him, and there was the little confusion of lighting the lamp and drawing up a chair. "Haven"t I interrupted you?"
"Yes," John replied simply, "but it is well you did. I have some writing I must do to-night, and I had forgotten it. You and Helen will excuse me if I leave you a little while?"
Both the others protested: Gifford that he was driving Mr. Ward from his own fireside, and Helen that it was too late for work.
"No, you are not driving me away. My papers are up-stairs. I will see you again," he added, turning to Gifford; and then he closed the door, and they heard his step in the room above.
The interruption had brought him back to real life. He left the joy which befogged his conscience, and felt again that chill and shock which Helen"s words had given him, and that sudden pang of remorse for a neglected duty; he wanted to be alone, and to face his own thoughts. His writing did not detain him long, and afterwards he paced the chilly room, struggling to see his duty through his love. But in that half hour up-stairs he reached no new conclusion. Helen"s antipathy to doctrine was so marked, it was, as she said, useless to begin discussion; and it would be worse than useless to urge her to come to prayer-meeting, if she did not want to; it would only make her antagonistic to the truth. She was not ready for the strong meat of the Word, which was certainly what his elders fed to hungry souls at prayer-meetings. John did not know that there was any reluctance in his own mind to disturb their harmony and peace by argument; he simply failed to recognize his own motives; the reasons he gave himself were all secondary.
"I ought not to have come so late," Gifford said, "and it is a shame to disturb Mr. Ward, but I did want to see you so much, Helen!"
Helen"s thoughts were following her husband, and it was an effort to bring them back to Gifford and his interests, but she turned her tranquil face to him with a gracious gentleness which never left her. "He will come back again," she said, "and he will be glad to have this writing off his mind to-night. I was only afraid he might take cold; you know he has a stubborn little cough. Why did you want to see me, Giff?"
She took some knitting from her work-table, and, shaking out its fleecy softness, began to work, the big wooden needles making a velvety sound as they rubbed together. Gifford was opposite her, his hands thrust moodily into his pockets, his feet stretched straight out, and his head sunk on his breast. But he did not look as though he were resting; an intent anxiety seemed to pervade his big frame, and Helen could not fail to observe it. She glanced at him, as he sat frowning into the fire, but he did not notice her.
"Something troubles you, Gifford."
He started. "Yes," he said. He changed his position, leaning his elbows on his knees, and propping his chin on his fists, and still scowling at the fire. "Yes, I came to speak to you about it."
"I wish you would," Helen answered. But Gifford found it difficult to begin.
"I"ve had a letter from aunt Ruth to-day," he said at last, "and it has bothered me. I don"t know how to tell you, exactly; you will think it"s none of my business."
"Is there anything wrong at the rectory?" Helen asked, putting down her work, and drawing a quick breath.
"Oh, no, no, of course not," answered Gifford, "nothing like that. The fact is, Helen--the fact is--well, plainly, aunt Ruth thinks that that young Forsythe is in love with Lois."
Gifford"s manner, as he spoke, told Helen what she had only surmised before, and she was betrayed into an involuntary expression of sympathy.
"Oh," cried the young man, with an impatient gesture and a sudden flush tingling across his face, "you misunderstand me. I haven"t come to whine about myself, or anything like that. I"m not jealous; for Heaven"s sake, don"t think I am such a cur as to be jealous! If that man was worthy of Lois, I--why, I"d be the first one to rejoice that she was happy. I want Lois to be happy, from my soul! I hope you believe me, Helen?"
"I believe anything you tell me," she answered gently, "but I don"t quite understand how you feel about Mr. Forsythe; every one speaks so highly of him. Even aunt Deely has only pleasant things to say of "young Forsythe,"
as she calls him."
Gifford left his chair, and began to walk about the room, his hands grasping the lapels of his coat, and his head thrown back in a troubled sort of impatience. "That"s just it," he said; "in this very letter aunt Ruth is enthusiastic, and I can"t tell you anything tangible against him, only I don"t like him, Helen. He"s a puppy,--that"s the amount of it. And I thought--I just thought--I"d come and ask you if you supposed--if you--of course I"ve no business to ask any question--but if you thought"--
But Helen had understood his vague inquiry, "I should think," she said "you would know that if he is what you call a _puppy_ Lois couldn"t care for him."
Gifford sat down, and took her ball of wool, beginning nervously to unwind it, and then wind it up again.
"Perhaps she wouldn"t see it," he said tentatively.
"Ah, you don"t trust her!" Helen cried brightly, "or you would not say that. (Don"t tie my worsted into knots!) When you write to Lois, why don"t you frankly say what you think of him?"
"Oh, I could not," he responded quickly. "Don"t you see, Helen, I"m a young fellow myself, and--and you know Lois did not care for me when I--told her. And if I said anything now, it would only mean that I was jealous, that I wanted her myself. Whereas, I give you my word," striking his fist sharply on his knee, "if he was fit for her, I"d rejoice; yes, I--I love her so much that if I saw her happy with any other man (who was worthy of her!) I"d be glad!"
Helen looked doubtful, but did not discuss that; she ran her hand along her needle, and gave her elastic work a pull. "Tell me more about him,"
she said.
But Gifford had not much to tell; it was only his vague distrust of the man, which it was difficult to put into words. "A good out-and-out sinner one can stand," he ended; "but all I saw of this Forsythe at the club and about town only made me set him down as a small man, a--a puppy, as I said. And I thought I"d talk to you about it, because, when you write to Lois, you might just hint, you know."
But Helen shook her head. "No, Gifford, that never does any good at all.
And I do not believe it is needed. The only thing to do now is to trust Lois. I have no anxiety about her; if he is what you say, her own ideal will protect her. Ah, Giff, I"m disappointed in you. I shouldn"t have thought you could doubt Lois."
"I don"t!" he cried, "only I am so afraid!"
"But you shouldn"t be afraid," Helen said, smiling; "a girl like Lois couldn"t love a man who was not good and n.o.ble. Perhaps, Gifford," she ventured, after a moment"s pause,--"perhaps it will be all right for you, some time."
"No, no," he answered, "I don"t dare to think of it."
Helen might have given him more courage, but John came in, and Gifford realized that it was very late. "Helen has scolded me, Mr. Ward," he said, "and it has done me good."
John turned and looked at her. "Can she scold?" he said. And when Gifford glanced back, as he went down the street, he saw them still standing in the doorway in the starlight; Helen leaning back a little against John"s arm, so that she might see his face. The clear warm pallor of her cheek glowed faintly in the frosty air.
Gifford sighed as he walked on. "They are very happy," he thought. "Well, that sort of happiness may never be for me, but it is something to love a good woman. I have got that in my life, anyhow."
Helen"s confidence in her cousin"s instinct might perhaps have been shaken had she known what pleasure Lois found in the companionship of Mr.
Forsythe, and how that pleasure was encouraged by all her friends. That very evening, while Gifford was pouring his anxieties into her ear, Lois was listening to d.i.c.k"s pictures of the gayeties of social life; the "jolly times," as he expressed it, which she had never known.
Dr. Howe was reading, with an indignant exclamation occasionally, a scathing review of an action of his political candidate, and his big newspaper hid the two young people by the fire, so that he quite forgot them. Max seemed to feel that the responsibility of propriety rested upon him, and he sat with his head on Lois"s knee, and his drowsy eyes blinking at Mr. Forsythe. His mistress pulled his silky ears gently, or knotted them behind his head, giving him a curiously astonished and grieved look, as though he felt she trifled with his dignity; yet he did not move his head, but watched, with no affection in his soft brown eyes, the young man who talked so eagerly to Lois.
"That brute hates me," said Mr. Forsythe, "and yet I took the trouble to bring him a biscuit to-day. Talk of grat.i.tude and affection in animals.
They don"t know what it means!"
"Max loves me," Lois answered, taking the setter"s head between her hands.
"Ah, well, that"s different," cried Forsythe; "of course he does. I"d like to know how he could help it. He wouldn"t be fit to live, if he didn"t."
Lois raised the hand-screen she held, so that d.i.c.k could only see the curls about her forehead and one small curve of her ear. "How hot the fire is!" she said.
Dr. Howe folded his newspaper with much crackling and widely opened arms.
"Don"t sit so near it. In my young days, the children were never allowed to come any nearer the fireplace than the outside of the hearth-rug."
Then he began to read again, muttering, "Confound that reporter!"
d.i.c.k glanced at him, and then he said, in a low voice, "Max loves you because you are so kind to him, Miss Lois; it is worth while to be a dog to have you"--
"Give him bones?" Lois cried hurriedly. "Yes, it is too hot in here, father; don"t you think so; don"t you want me to open the window?"
Dr. Howe looked up, surprised. "If you want to, child," he said. "Dear me, I"m afraid I have not been very entertaining, Mr. Forsythe. What do you think of this attack on our candidate? Contemptible, isn"t it? What?
I have no respect for any one who can think it anything but abominable and outrageous."
"It"s scandalous!" d.i.c.k answered,--and then in a smiling whisper to Lois, he added, "I"m afraid to tell the doctor I"m a Democrat."
But when Lois was quite alone that night, she found herself smiling in the darkness, and a thrill of pride made her cheeks hotter than the fire had done.
CHAPTER IX.