Pennington--didn"t think she had any settled home at present. Her father was travelling over the country somewhere. Nelly was a good little girl, and very obliging. Beyond this Winslow could get no more information, so he went around and talked to Nelly, who was sitting on the bench under the poplars and seemed absorbed in watching the sunset.
She dropped her g"s badly and made some grammatical errors that caused Winslow"s flesh to creep on his bones. But any man could have forgiven mistakes from such dimpled lips in such a sweet voice.
He asked her to go for a row up the river in the twilight and she a.s.sented; she handled an oar very well, he found out, and the exercise became her. Winslow tried to get her to talk about herself, but failed signally and had to content himself with Mrs. Pennington"s meagre information. He told her about himself frankly enough--how he had had fever in the spring and had been ordered to spend the summer in the country and do nothing useful until his health was fully restored, and how lonesome it was in Riverside in general and at the Beckwith farm in particular. He made out quite a dismal case for himself and if Nelly wasn"t sorry for him, she should have been.
At the end of a fortnight Riverside folks began to talk about Winslow and the Penningtons" hired girl. He was reported to be "dead gone" on her; he took her out rowing every evening, drove her to preaching up the Bend on Sunday nights, and haunted the Pennington farmhouse. Wise folks shook their heads over it and wondered that Mrs. Pennington allowed it. Winslow was a gentleman, and that Nelly Ray, whom n.o.body knew anything about, not even where she came from, was only a common hired girl, and he had no business to be hanging about her. She was pretty, to be sure; but she was absurdly stuck-up and wouldn"t a.s.sociate with other Riverside "help" at all. Well, pride must have a fall; there must be something queer about her when she was so awful sly as to her past life.
Winslow and Nelly did not trouble themselves in the least over all this gossip; in fact, they never even heard it. Winslow was hopelessly in love, when he found this out he was aghast. He thought of his father, the ambitious railroad magnate; of his mother, the brilliant society leader; of his sisters, the beautiful and proud; he was honestly frightened. It would never do; he must not go to see Nelly again. He kept this prudent resolution for twenty-four hours and then rowed over to the West sh.o.r.e. He found Nelly sitting on the bank in her old faded print dress and he straightway forgot everything he ought to have remembered.
Nelly herself never seemed to be conscious of the social gulf between them. At least she never alluded to it in any way, and accepted Winslow"s attentions as if she had a perfect right to them. She had broken the record by staying with Mrs. Pennington four weeks, and even the cats were in subjection.
Winslow was well enough to have gone back to the city and, in fact, his father was writing for him. But he couldn"t leave Beckwiths", apparently. At any rate he stayed on and met Nelly every day and cursed himself for a cad and a cur and a weak-brained idiot.
One day he took Nelly for a row up the river. They went further than usual around the Bend. Winslow didn"t want to go too far, for he knew that a party of his city friends, chaperoned by Mrs. Keyton-Wells, were having a picnic somewhere up along the river sh.o.r.e that day. But Nelly insisted on going on and on, and of course she had her way. When they reached a little pine-fringed headland they came upon the picnickers, within a stone"s throw. Everybody recognized Winslow.
"Why, there is Burton!" he heard Mrs. Keyton-Wells exclaim, and he knew she was putting up her gla.s.ses. Will Evans, who was an especial chum of his, ran down to the water"s edge. "Bless me, Win, where did you come from? Come right in. We haven"t had tea yet. Bring your friend too," he added, becoming conscious that Winslow"s friend was a mighty pretty girl. Winslow"s face was crimson. He avoided Nelly"s eye.
"Are them people friends of yours?" she asked in a low tone.
"Yes," he muttered.
"Well, let us go ash.o.r.e if they want us to," she said calmly. "I don"t mind."
For three seconds Winslow hesitated. Then he pulled ash.o.r.e and helped Nelly to alight on a jutting rock. There was a curious, set expression about his fine mouth as he marched Nelly up to Mrs. Keyton-Wells and introduced her. Mrs. Keyton-Wells"s greeting was slightly cool, but very polite. She supposed Miss Ray was some little country girl with whom Burton Winslow was carrying on a summer flirtation; respectable enough, no doubt, and must be treated civilly, but of course wouldn"t expect to be made an equal of exactly. The other women took their cue from her, but the men were more cordial. Miss Ray might be shabby, but she was distinctly fetching, and Winslow looked savage.
Nelly was not a whit abashed, seemingly, by the fashionable circle in which she found herself, and she talked away to Will Evans and the others in her soft drawl as if she had known them all her life. All might have gone pa.s.sably well, had not a little Riverside imp, by name of Rufus Hent, who had been picked up by the picnickers to run their errands, come up just then with a pail of water.
"Golly!" he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed in very audible tones. "If there ain"t Mrs.
Pennington"s hired girl!"
Mrs. Keyton-Wells stiffened with horror. Winslow darted a furious glance at the tell-tale that would have annihilated anything except a small boy. Will Evans grinned and went on talking to Nelly, who had failed to hear, or at least to heed, the exclamation.
The mischief was done, the social thermometer went down to zero in Nelly"s neighbourhood. The women ignored her altogether. Winslow set his teeth together and registered a mental vow to wring Rufus Hent"s sunburned neck at the first opportunity. He escorted Nelly to the table and waited on her with ostentatious deference, while Mrs.
Keyton-Wells glanced at him stonily and made up her mind to tell his mother when she went home.
Nelly"s social ostracism did not affect her appet.i.te. But after lunch was over, she walked down to the skiff. Winslow followed her.
"Do you want to go home?" he asked.
"Yes, it"s time I went, for the cats may be raidin" the pantry. But you must not come; your friends here want you."
"Nonsense!" said Winslow sulkily. "If you are going I am too."
But Nelly was too quick for him; she sprang into the skiff, unwound the rope, and pushed off before he guessed her intention.
"I can row myself home and I mean to," she announced, taking up the oars defiantly.
"Nelly," he implored.
Nelly looked at him wickedly.
"You"d better go back to your friends. That old woman with the eyegla.s.ses is watchin" you."
Winslow said something strong under his breath as he went back to the others. Will Evans and his chums began to chaff him about Nelly, but he looked so dangerous that they concluded to stop. There is no denying that Winslow was in a fearful temper just then with Mrs.
Keyton-Wells, Evans, himself, Nelly--in fact, with all the world.
His friends drove him home in the evening on their way to the station and dropped him at the Beckwith farm. At dusk he went moodily down to the sh.o.r.e. Far up the Bend was dim and shadowy and stars were shining above the wooded sh.o.r.es. Over the river the Pennington farmhouse lights twinkled out alluringly. Winslow watched them until he could stand it no longer. Nelly had made off with his skiff, but Perry Beckwith"s dory was ready to hand. In five minutes, Winslow was grounding her on the West sh.o.r.e. Nelly was sitting on a rock at the landing place. He went over and sat down silently beside her. A full moon was rising above the dark hills up the Bend and in the faint light the girl was wonderfully lovely.
"I thought you weren"t comin" over at all tonight," she said, smiling up at him, "and I was sorry, because I wanted to say goodbye to you."
"Goodbye? Nelly, you"re not going away?"
"Yes. The cats were in the pantry when I got home."
"Nelly!"
"Well, to be serious. I"m not goin" for that, but I really am goin".
I had a letter from Dad this evenin". Did you have a good time after I left this afternoon? Did Mrs. Keyton-Wells thaw out?"
"Hang Mrs. Keyton-Wells! Nelly, where are you going?"
"To Dad, of course. We used to live down south together, but two months ago we broke up housekeepin" and come north. We thought we could do better up here, you know. Dad started out to look for a place to settle down and I came here while he was prospectin". He"s got a house now, he says, and wants me to go right off. I"m goin" tomorrow."
"Nelly, you mustn"t go--you mustn"t, I tell you," exclaimed Winslow in despair. "I love you--I love you--you must stay with me forever."
"You don"t know what you"re sayin", Mr. Winslow," said Nelly coldly.
"Why, you can"t marry me--a common servant girl."
"I can and I will, if you"ll have me," answered Winslow recklessly. "I can"t ever let you go. I"ve loved you ever since I first saw you.
Nelly, won"t you be my wife? Don"t you love me?"
"Well, yes, I do," confessed Nelly suddenly; and then it was fully five minutes before Winslow gave her a chance to say anything else.
"Oh, what will your people say?" she contrived to ask at last. "Won"t they be in a dreadful state? Oh, it will never do for you to marry me."
"Won"t it?" said Winslow in a tone of satisfaction. "I rather think it will. Of course, my family will rampage a bit at first. I daresay Father"ll turn me out. Don"t worry over that, Nelly. I"m not afraid of work. I"m not afraid of anything except losing you."
"You"ll have to see what Dad says," remarked Nelly, after another eloquent interlude.
"He won"t object, will he? I"ll write to him or go and see him. Where is he?"
"He is in town at the Arlington."
"The Arlington!" Winslow was amazed. The Arlington was the most exclusive and expensive hotel in town.
"What is he doing there?"
"Transacting a real estate or railroad deal with your father, I believe, or something of that sort."